1492 By Mary Johnson 1492 CHAPTER I THE morning was gray and I sat by the sea near Palos in a gray mood. Iwas Jayme de Marchena, and that was a good, _old Christian_ name. Butmy grandmother was Jewess, and in corners they said that she never trulyrecanted, and I had been much with her as a child. She was dead, butstill they talked of her. Jayme de Marchena, looking back from thehillside of forty-six, saw some service done for the Queen and the folk. This thing and that thing. Not demanding trumpets, but serviceable. Itwould be neither counted nor weighed beside and against that which DonPedro and the Dominican found to say. What they found to say they made, not found. They took clay of misrepresentation, and in the fieldof falsehood sat them down, and consulting the parchment of malice, proceeded to create. But false as was all they set up, the time wouldcry it true. It was reasonable that I should find the day gray. Study and study and study, year on year, and at last image a greatthing, just under the rim of the mind's ocean, sending up for those whowill look streamers above horizon, streamers of colored and wonderfullight! Study and reason and with awe and delight take light from above. Dream of good news for one and all, of life given depth and brought intomusic, dream of giving the given, never holding it back, which would beavarice and betraying! Write, and give men and women to read what youhave written, and believe--poor Deluded!--that they also feel innerwarmth and light and rejoice. Oh, gray the sea and gray the shore! But some did feel it. The Dominican, when it fell into his hands, called it perdition. A Jewess for grandmother, and Don Pedro for enemy. And now theDominican--the Dominicans! The Queen and the King made edict against the Jews, and there sat theInquisition. I was--I am--Christian. It is a wide and deep and high word. When youask, "What is it--Christian?" then must each of us answer as it is givento him to answer. I and thou--and the True, the Universal Christ give uslight! To-day all Andalusia, all Castile and all Spain to me seemed gray, andgray the utter Ocean that stretched no man knew where. The gray was thegray of fetters and of ashes. The tide made, and as the waves came nearer, eating the sand beforeme, they uttered a low crying. _In danger--danger--in danger, Jayme deMarchena!_ I had been in danger before. Who is not often and always in danger, inlife? But this was a danger to daunt. Mine were no powerful friends. I had only that which was within me. Iwas only son of only son, and my parents and grandparents were dead, and my distant kindred cold, seeing naught of good in so much study andthinking of that old, dark, beautiful, questionable one, my grandmother. I had indeed a remote kinsman, head of a convent in this neighborhood, and he was a wise man and a kindly. But not he either could do aughthere! All the Jews to be banished, and Don Pedro with a steady forefinger, "That man--take him, too! Who does not know that his grandmother wasJewess, and that he lived with her and drank poison?" But the Dominican, "No! The Holy Office will take him. You have but to read--only you mustnot read--what he has written to see why!" Gray Ocean, stretching endlessly and now coming close, were it not wellif I drowned myself this gray morning while I can choose the death Ishall die? Now the great murmur sang _Well_, and now it sang Not well. Low cliff and heaped sand and a solitary bird wide-winging toward themountains of Portugal, and the Ocean gray-blue and salt! The salt savorentered me, and an inner zest came forward and said No, to beingcraven. In banishment certainly, in the House of the Inquisition moredoubtfully, the immortal man might yet find market from which to buy! Ifthe mind could surmount, the eternal quest need not be interrupted--eventhere! Blue Ocean sang to me. A vision--it came to me at times, vision--set itself in air. I sawA People who persecuted neither Jew nor thinker. It rose one Figure, formed of an infinite number of small figures, but all their edges metin one glow. The figure stood upon the sea and held apart the clouds, and was free and fair and mighty, and was man and woman melted together, and it took all colors and made of them a sun for its brow. I did notknow when it would live, but I knew that it should live. Perhaps it wasthe whole world. It vanished, leaving sky and ocean and Andalusia. But great visionsleave great peace. After it, for this day, it seemed not worth while togrieve and miserably to forebode. Through the hours that I lay there bythe sea, airs from that land or that earth blew about me and faint songsvisited my ears, and the gray day was only gray like a dove's breast. Jayme de Marchena stayed by the lonely sea because that seemed thesafest place to stay. At hand was the small port of Palos that mightnot know what was breeding in Seville, and going thither at nightfall Ifound lodging and supper in a still corner where all night I heard theTinto flowing by. I had wandered to Palos because of the Franciscan convent of Santa Mariade la Rabida and my very distant kins-man, Fray Juan Perez. The dayafter the gray day by the shore I walked half a league of sandy roadand came to convent gate. The porter let me in, and I waited in a littlecourt with doves about me and a swinging bell above until the brotherwhom he had called returned and took me to Prior's room. At first FrayJuan Perez was stiff and cold, but by littles this changed and hebecame a good man, large-minded and with a sense for kindred. Clearly hethought that I should not have had a Jewish grandmother, nor have livedwith her from my third to my tenth birthday, and most clearly that Ishould not have written that which I had written. But his God was anenergetic, enterprising, kindly Prince, rather bold himself and tolerantof heathen. Fray Juan Perez even intimated a doubt if God wanted theInquisition. "But that's going rather far!" he said hastily and satdrumming the table and pursing his lips. Presently he brought out, "Butyou know I can't do anything!" I did know it. What could he do? I suppose I had had a half-hope ofsomething. I knew not what. Without a hope I would not have come toLa Rabida. But it was maimed from the first, and now it died. I made agesture of relinquishment. "No, I suppose you cannot--" He said after a moment that he was glad to see that I had let my beardgrow and was very plainly dressed, though I had never been elaboratethere, and especially was he glad that I was come to Palos not as Jaymede Marchena, but under a plain and simple name, Juan Lepe, to wit. Hisadvice was to flee from the wrath to come. He would not say flee fromthe Holy Office--that would be heinous!--but he would say absent myself, abscond, be banished, Jayme de Marchena by Jayme de Marchena. There werebarques in Palos and rude seamen who asked no question when gold justenough, and never more than enough, was shown. He hesitated a moment andthen asked if I had funds. If not-- I thanked him and said that I had made provision. "Then, " said he, "go to Barbary, Don Jayme! An intelligent and prudentman may prosper at Ercilla or at Fez. If you must study, study there. " "You also study, " I said. "In fair trodden highways--never in thick forest and mere fog!" heanswered. "Now if you were like one who has been here and is now beforeGranada, at Santa Fe, sent for thither by the Queen! That one hathindeed studied to benefit Spain--Spain, Christendom, and the world!" I asked who was that great one, but before he could tell me cameinterruption. A visitor entered, a strong-lipped, bold-eyed man namedMartin Pinzon. I was to meet him again and often, but at this time I didnot know that. Fray Juan Perez evidently desiring that I should go, Ithought it right to oblige him who would have done me kindness had heknown how. I went without intimate word of parting and after only acasual stare from Martin Pinzon. But without, my kinsman came after me. "I want to say, Don Jayme, thatif I am asked for testimony I shall hold to it that you are as goodChristian as any--" It was kinsman's part and all that truly I could have hoped for, andI told him so. About us was quiet, vacant cloister, and we parted morewarmly than we had done within. The white convent of La Rabida is set on a headland among vineyards andpine trees. It regards the ocean and, afar, the mountains of Portugal, and below it runs a small river, going out to sea through sands with theTinto and the Odiel. Again the day was gray and the pine trees sighing. The porter let me out at gate. I walked back toward Palos through the sandy ways. I did not wish to goto Africa. It is my belief that that larger Self whom they will call protectingSaint or heavenly Guardian takes hand in affairs oftener than we think!Leaving the Palos road, I went to the sea as I had done yesterday andagain sat under heaped sand with about me a sere grass through which thewind whined. At first it whined and then it sang in a thin, outlandishvoice. Sitting thus, I might have looked toward Africa, but I knew nowthat I was not going to Africa. Often, perhaps, in the unremembered pastI had been in Africa; often, doubtless, in ages to come its soilwould be under my foot, but now I was not going there! To-day I lookedwestward over River-Ocean, unknown to our fathers and unknown toourselves. It was unknown as the future of the world. Ocean piled before me. From where I lay it seemed to run uphill to onepale line, nor blue nor white, set beneath the solid gray. Over thathilltop, what? Only other hills and plains, water, endlessly water, until the waves, so much mightier than waves of that blue sea we knewbest, should beat at last against Asia shore! So high, so deep, so vast, so real, yet so empty-seeming save for strange dangers! No sails overthe hilltop; no sails in all that Vast save close at hand where marinersheld to the skirts of Mother. Europe. Ocean vast, Ocean black, Oceanunknown. Yet there, too, life and the knowing of life ran somehowcontinuous. It wiled me from my smaller self. How had we all suffered, we the wholeearth! But we were moving, we the world with none left out, movingtoward That which held worlds, which was conscious above worlds. Longthe journey, long the adventure, but it was not worth while fearing, itwas not worth while whining! I was not alone Jayme de Marchena, nor JuanLepe, nor this name nor that nor the other. There was now a great space of quiet in my mind. Suddenly formed therethe face and figure of Don Enrique de Cerda whose life I had hadthe good hap to save. He was far away with the Queen and King whobeleaguered Granada. I had not seen him for ten years. A moment beforehe had rested among the host of figures in the unevenly lighted land ofmemory. Now he stood forth plainly and seemed to smile. I took the leading. With the inner eye I have seen lines of light likesubtle shining cords running between persons. Such a thread stretchednow between me and Enrique de Cerda. I determined to make my way, asJuan Lepe, through the mountains and over the plain of Granada to SantaFe. CHAPTER II SET will to an end and promptly eyes open to means! I did not start forGranada from Palos but from Huelva, and I quitted Andalusia as a porterin a small merchant train carrying goods of sorts to Zarafa that was amountain town taken from the Moors five years back. I was to these folkJuan Lepe, a strong, middle-aged man used to ships but now for somereason tired of them. My merchants had only eyes for the safety of theirpersons and their bales, plunged the third day into mountainous wildcountry echoing and ghastly with long-lasting war. Their servants andmuleteers walked and rode, lamented or were gay, raised faction, swore, laughed, traveled grimly or in a dull melancholy or mirthfully;quarreled and made peace, turn by turn, day by day, much alike. One whowas a bully fixed a quarrel upon me and another took my part. All leapedto sides. I was forgotten in the midst of them; they could hardly havetold now what was the cause of battle. A young merchant rode back tochide and settle matters. At last some one remembered that Diego hadstruck Juan Lepe who had flung him off. Then Tomaso had sprung in andstruck Diego. Then Miguel--"Let Juan Lepe alone!" said my merchant. "Fie! a poor Palos seafaring child, and you great Huelva men!" Theylaughed at that, and the storm vanished as it had come. I liked the young man. How wild and without law, save "Hold if you can!" were these mountains!"Hold if you can to life--hold if you can to knowledge--hold if you canto joy!" Black cliff overhung black glen and we knew there were dens ofrobbers. Far and near violence falls like black snow. This merchantband gathered to sleep under oaks with a great rock at our back. We hadjourneyers' supper and fire, for it was cold, cold in these heights. Alittle wine was given and men fell to sleep by the heaped bales; horses, asses and mules being fastened close under the crag. Three men watched, to be relieved in middle night by other three who now slept. A muleteernamed Rodrigo and Juan Lepe and the young merchant took the first turn. The first two sat on one side of the fire and the young merchant on theother. The muleteer remained sunken in a great cloak, his chin on his armsfolded upon his knees, and what he saw in the land within I cannot tell. But the young merchant was of a quick disposition and presently musttalk. For some distance around us spread bare earth set only with shrubsand stones. Also the rising moon gave light, and with that and our ownstrength we did not truly look for any attack. We sat and talked atease, though with lowered voices, Rodrigo somewhere away and the rest ofthe picture sleeping. The merchant asked what had been my last voyage. I answered, after a moment, to England. "You do not seem to me, " he said, "a seaman. But I suppose there are allkinds of seamen. " I said yes, the sea was wide. "England now, at the present moment?" he said, and questioned me as toBristol, of which port he had trader's knowledge. I answered out of abook I had read. It was true that, living once by the sea, I knew how tohandle a boat. I could find in memory sailors' terms. But still he said, "You are not a seaman such as we see at Palos and San Lucar. " It is often best not to halt denial. Let it pass by and wander among thewild grasses! "I myself, " he said presently, "have gone by sea to Vigo and toBordeaux. " He warmed his hands at the fire, then clasped them about hisknees and gazed into the night. "What, Juan Lepe, is that Ocean we lookupon when we look west? I mean, where does it go? What does it strike?" "India, belike. And Cathay. To-day all men believe the earth to beround. " "A long way!" he said. "O Sancta Maria! All that water!" "We do not have to drink it. " He laughed. "No! Nor sail it. But after I had been on that voyage Icould see us always like mice running close to a wall, forever andforever! Juan Lepe, we are little and timid!" I liked his spirit. "One day we shall be lions and eagles and boldprophets! Then our tongue shall taste much beside India and Cathay!" "Well, I hope it, " he said. "Mice running under the headlands. " He fell silent, cherishing his knees and staring into the fire. It wasnot Juan Lepe's place to talk when master merchant talked not. I, too, regarded the fire, and the herded mountains robed in night, and thehalf-moon like a sail rising from an invisible boat. The night went peacefully by. It was followed by a hard day's traveland the incident of the road. At evening we saw the walls of Zarafa in asunset glory. The merchants and their train passed through the gate andfound their customary inn. With others, Juan Lepe worked hard, unladingand storing. All done, he and the bully slept almost in each other'sarms, under the arches of the court, dreamlessly. The next day and the next were still days of labor. It was not untilthe third that Juan Lepe considered that he might now absent himself andthere be raised no hue and cry after strong shoulders. He had earned hisquittance, and in the nighttime, upon his hands and knees, he crept fromthe sleepers in the court. Just before dawn the inn gate swung open. Hehad been waiting close to it, and he passed out noiselessly. In the two days, carrying goods through streets to market square and upto citadel and pausing at varying levels for breath and the prospect, Ihad learned this town well enough. I knew where went the ascending anddescending ways. Now almost all lay asleep, antique, shaded, Moorish, still, under the stars. The soldiery and the hidalgos, their officers, slept; only the sentinels waked before the citadel entry and on the townwalls and by the three gates. The town folk slept, all but the sick andthe sorrowful and the careful and those who had work at dawn. Listen, and you might hear sound like the first moving of birds, or breath ofdawn wind coming up at sea. The greater part now of the town folkwere Christian, brought in since the five-year-gone siege that stillresounded. Moors were here, but they had turned Christian, or wereslaves, or both slave and Christian. I had seen monks of all habits andheard ring above the inn the bells of a nunnery. Now again they rang. The mosque was now a church. It rose at hand, --white, square, domed. Iwent by a ladder-like lane down toward Zarafa wall and the Gate of theLion. At sunrise in would pour peasants from the vale below, bringingvegetables and poultry, and mountaineers with quails and conies, andothers with divers affairs. Outgoing would be those who tilled a fewsteep gardens beyond the wall, messengers and errand folk, soldiers andtraders for the army before Granada. It was full early when I came to the wall. I could make out the heavyand tall archway of the gate, but as yet was no throng before it. Iwaited; the folk began to gather, the sun came up. Zarafa grew rosy. Nowwas clatter enough, voices of men and brutes, both sides the gate. Thegate opened. Juan Lepe won out with a knot of brawny folk going to themountain pastures. Well forth, he looked back and saw Zarafa gleamingrose and pearl in the blink of the sun, and sent young merchantward awish for good. Then he took the eastward way down the mountain, towardlower mountains and at last the Vega of Granada. CHAPTER III THE day passed. I had adventures of the road, but none of consequence. I slept well among the rocks, waked, ate the bit of bread I had with me, and fell again to walking. Mountains were now withdrawing to the distant horizon where they stoodaround, a mighty and beautiful wall. I was coming down into the plain ofGranada, that once had been a garden. Now, north, south, east, west, it lay war-trampled. Old owners were dead, men and women, or were_mudexares_, vassals, or were fled, men and women, all who could flee, to their kindred in Africa. Or they yet cowered, men and women, in thebroken garden, awaiting individual disaster. The Kingdom of Granada hadsins, and the Kingdom of Castile, and the Kingdom of Leon. The Moor wasstained, and the Spaniard, the Moslem and the Christian and the Jew. Whohad stains the least or the most God knew--and it was a poor inquiry. Seek the virtues and bind them with love, each in each! If the mountain road had been largely solitary, it was not so of thisroad. There were folk enough in the wide Vega of Granada. Clearly, asthough the one party had been dressed in black and the other in red, they divided into vanquished and victor. Bit by bit, now through years, all these towns and villages, all these fertile fields and bosky places, rich and singing, had left the hand of the Moor for the hand of theSpaniard. In all this part of his old kingdom the Moor lay low in defeat. In hadswarmed the Christian and with the Christian the Jew, though now the Jewmust leave. The city of Granada was not yet surrendered, and the Queenand King held all soldiery that they might at Santa Fe, built as it werein a night before Granada walls. Yet there seemed at large bands enough, licentious and loud, the scum of soldiery. Ere I reached the villagethat I now saw before me I had met two such bands, I wondered, and thenwondered at my own wonder. The chief house of the village was become an inn. Two long tables stoodin the patio where no fountain now flowed nor orange trees grew norbirds sang in corners nor fine awning kept away the glare. Twenty ofthese wild and base fighting men crowded one table, eating and drinking, clamorous and spouting oaths. At the other table sat together at an endthree men whom by a number of tokens might be robbers of the mountains. They sat quiet, indifferent to the noise, talking low among themselvesin a tongue of their own, kin enough to the soldiery not to fear them. The opposite end of the long table was given to a group to which I nowjoined myself. Here sat two Franciscan friars, and a man who seemed alawyer; and one who had the air of the sea and turned out to be masterof a Levantine; and a brisk, talkative, important person, a Catalan, andas it presently appeared alcalde once of a so-so village; and a young, unhealthy-looking man in black with an open book beside him; and astrange fellow whose Spanish was imperfect. I sat down near the friars, crossed myself, and cut a piece ofbread from the loaf before me. The innkeeper and his wife, a gaunt, extraordinarily tall woman, served, running from table to table. Theplace was all heat and noise. Presently the soldiers, ending their meal, got up with clamor and surged from the court to their waiting horses. After them ran the innkeeper, appealing for pay. Denials, expostulation, anger and beseeching reached the ears of the patio, then the soundof horses going down stony ways. "O God of the poor!" cried the gauntwoman. "How are we robbed!" "Why are they not before Granada?" demanded the lawyer and alertlyprovided the answer to his own question. "Take locusts and give themleave to eat, being careful to say, 'This fellow's fields only!' But thelocusts have wings and their nature is to eat!" The mountain robbers, if robbers they were, dined quietly, the gauntwoman promptly and painstakingly serving them. They were going to pay, Iwas sure, though it might not be this noon. The two friars seemed, quiet, simple men, dining as dumbly as ifthey sat in Saint Francis's refectory. The sometime alcalde and theshipmaster were the talkers, the student sitting as though he were inthe desert, eating bread and cheese and onions and looking on his book. The lawyer watched all, talked to make them talk, then came in andsettled matters. The alcalde was the politician, knowing the affairsof the world and speaking familiarly of the King and the Queen and theMarquis of Cadiz. The shipmaster said, "This time last year I was in London, and I sawtheir King. His name is Henry. King Henry the Seventh, and a goodcarrier of his kingship!" "That for him!" said the alcalde. "Let him stay in his foggy island! ButSpain is too small for King Ferdinand. " "All kings find their lands toosmall, " said the lawyer. The shipmaster spoke again. "The King of Portugal's ship sails ahead ofours in that matter. He's stuck his banner in the new islands, Maderiaand the Hawk Islands and where not! I was talking in Cadiz with one whowas with Bartholomew Diaz when he turned Africa and named it Good Hope. Which is to say, King John has Good Hope of seeing Portugal swell. Portugal! Well, I say, 'Why not Spain'?" The student looked up from his book. "It is a great Age!" he said andreturned to his reading. When we had finished dinner, we paid the tall, gaunt woman and leavingthe robbers, if robbers they were, still at table, went out intothe street. Here the friars, the alcalde and the lawyer moved in thedirection of the small, staring white and ruined mosque that was to betransformed into the church of San Jago the Deliverer. That was the onething of which the friars had spoken. A long bench ran by inn wall andhere the shipmaster took his seat and began to discourse with thosealready there. Book under arm, the student moved dreamily down theopposite lane. Juan Lepe walked away alone. Through the remainder of this day he had now company and adventurewithout, now solitude and adventure within. That night he spent in aruined tower where young trees grew and an owl was his comrade and heread the face of a glorious moon. Dawn. He bathed in a stream that ranby the mound of the tower and ate a piece of bread from his wallet andtook the road. The sun mounted above the trees. A man upon a mule came up behind me andwas passing. "There is a stone wedged in his shoe, " I said. The riderdrew rein and I lifted the creature's foreleg and took out the pebble. The rider made search for a bit of money. I said that the deed wasshort and easy and needed no payment, whereupon he put up the coin andregarded me out of his fine blue eyes. He was quite fair, a young manstill, and dressed after a manner of his own in garments not at all newbut with a beauty of fashioning and putting on. He and his mule looked acorner out of a great painting. And I had no sooner thought that thanhe said, "I see in you, friend, a face and figure for my 'Draught ofFishes. ' And by Saint Christopher, there is water over yonder and justthe landscape!" He leaned from the saddle and spoke persuasively, "Comefrom the road a bit down to the water and let me draw you! You are notdressed like the kin of Midas! I will give you the price of dinner. "As he talked he drew out of a richly worked bag a book of paper andpencils. I thought, "This beard and the clothes of Juan Lepe. He canhardly make it so that any may recognize. " It was resting time and theman attracted. I agreed, if he would take no more than an hour. "The drawing, no!--Bent far over, gathering the net strongly--Andrew orMark perhaps, since, traditionally, John must have youth. " He had continued to study me all this time, and now we left the road andmoved over the plain to the stream that here widened into a pool fringedwith rushes and a few twisted trees. An ancient, half-sunkenboat drowsing under the bank he hailed again in the name of SaintChristopher. Dismounting, he fastened his mule to a willow and proceededto place me, then himself found a root of a tree, and taking out hisknife fell to sharpening pencil. This done, he rested book against kneeand began to draw. Having made his figure in one posture he rose and showed me another anddrew his fisherman so. Then he demonstrated a third way and drew again. Now he was silent, working hard, and now he dropped his hand, threwback his head and talked. He himself made a picture, paly gold of locks, subtle and quick of face, plastered against a blue shield with a willowwreath going around. I stood so or so, drawing hard upon the net with the fishes. Then athis command I approached more nearly, and he drew full face andthree-quarter and profile. It was between these accomplishings that hetalked more intimately. "Seamen go to Italy, " he said. "Were you ever in Milan? But that isinland. " I answered that I had been from Genoa to Milan. "It is not likely that you saw a great painter there Messer Leonardo?" It happened that I had done this, and moreover had seen him at work andheard him put right thought into most right words. I was so tiredof lying that after a moment I said that I had seen and heard MesserLeonardo. "Did you see the statue?" "The first time I saw him he was at work upon it. The next time hewas painting in the church of Santa Maria. The third time he sat in agarden, sipped wine and talked. " "I hold you, " he said, "to be a fortunate fisherman! Just as this fisherI am painting, and whether it is Andrew or Mark, I do not yet know, wasa most fortunate fisherman!" He ended meditatively, "Though whoever itis, probably he was crucified or beheaded or burned. " I felt a certain shiver of premonition. The day that had been warm andbright turned in a flash ashy and chill. Then it swung back to its firstfair seeming, or not to its first, but to a deeper, brighter yet. TheFisherman by Galilee was fortunate. Whoever perceived truth and beautywas fortunate, fortunate now and forever! We came back to Messer Leonardo. "I spent six months at the court inMilan, " said the fair man. "I painted the Duke and the Duchess and twogreat courtiers. Messer Leonardo was away. He returned, and I visitedhim and found a master. Since that time I study light and shadow andsmall things and seek out inner action. " He worked in silence, then again began to speak of painters, Italian andSpanish. He asked me if I had seen such and such pictures in Seville. "Yes. They are good. " "Do you know Monsalvat?" I said that I had climbed there one day. "I dream a painting!" he said, "The Quest of the Grail. Now I see it running over the four walls of achurch, and now I see it all packed into one man who rides. Then againit has seemed to me truer to have it in a man and woman who walk, orperhaps even are seated. What do you think?" I was thinking of Isabel who died in my arms twenty years ago. "I wouldhave it man and woman, " I said. "Unless, like Messer Leonardo, you canput both in one. " He sat still, his mind working, while in a fair inner land Isabel and Imoved together; then in a meditative quiet he finished his drawing. Hehimself was admirable, fine gold and bronze, sapphire-eyed, with a facewhere streams of visions moved the muscles, and all against the blue andthe willow tree. At last he put away pencil, and at his gesture I came from the boat andthe reeds. I looked at what he had drawn, and then he shut book and, themule following us, we moved back to the road. "My dear fisherman, " he said, "you are trudging afoot and your dressexhibits poverty. Painters may paint Jove descending in showers ofgolden pesos and yet have few pesos in purse. I have at present ten. Ishould like to share them with you who have done me various good turnsto-day. " I said that he was generous but that he had done me good turns. MoreoverI was not utterly without coin, and certainly the hour had paid foritself. So he mounted his mule and wished me good fortune, and I wishedhim good fortune. "Are you going to Santa Fe?" "Yes. I have a friend in the camp. " "I go there to paint her Highness the Queen for his Highness the King. Perhaps we shall meet again. I am Manuel Rodriguez. " "I guessed that, " I answered, "an hour ago! Be so good, great painter, as not to remember me. It will serve me better. " The light played again over his face. "_The Disguised Hidalgo_. Excellent pictures come to me like that, in a great warm light, andexcellent names for pictures. --Very good. In a way, so to speak, I shallcompletely forget you!" Two on horseback, a churchman and a knight, with servants following, came around a bend of the dusty road and recognizing Manuel Rodriguez, called to him by name. Away he rode upon his mule, keeping company withthem. The dozen in their train followed, raising as they went by such adust cloud that presently all became like figures upon worn arras. Theyrode toward Santa Fe, and I followed on foot. CHAPTER IV SANTA Fe rose before me, a camp in wood, plaster and stone, a campwith a palace, a camp with churches. Built of a piece where no town hadstood, built that Majesty and its Court and its Army might have roofsand walls, not tents, for so long a siege, it covered the plain, a cityraised in a night. The siege had been long as the war had been long. Hidalgo Spain and simple Spain were gathered here in great squaresand ribbons of valor, ambition, emulation, desire of excitement andof livelihood, and likewise, I say it, in pieces not small, herded andbrought here without any "I say yes" of their own, and to their misery. There held full flavor of crusade, as all along the war had beenpreached as a crusade. Holy Church had here her own grandees, cavaliersand footmen. They wore cope and they wore cowl, and on occasion manyendued themselves with armor and hacked and hewed with an earthly sword. At times there seemed as many friars and priests as soldiers. Out and inwent a great Queen and King. Their court was here. The churchmen pressedaround the Queen. Famous leaders put on or took off armor in SantaFe, --the Marquis of Cadiz and many others only less than he inestimation, and one Don Gonsalvo de Cordova, whose greater fame was yetto come. Military and shining youth came to train and fight under these. Old captains-at-arms, gaunt and scarred, made their way thither fromafar. All were not Spaniard; many a soldier out at fortune or wishfulof fame came from France and Italy, even from England and Germany. Womenwere in Santa Fe. The Queen had her ladies. Wives, sisters and daughtersof hidalgos came to visit, and the common soldiery had their mates. Nordid there lack courtesans. Petty merchants thronged the place. All manner of rich goods were boughtby the flushed soldiers, the high and the low. And there dwelled here ahost of those who sold entertainment, --mummers and jugglers and singers, dwarfs and giants. Dice rattled, now there were castanets and dancing, and now church bells seemed to rock the place. Wine flowed. Out of the plain a league and more away sprang the two hills of Granada, and pricked against the sky, her walls and thousand towers and noblegates. Between them and Santa Fe stretched open and ruined ground, andhere for many a day had shocked together the Spaniard and the Moor. But now there was no longer battle. Granada had asked and been grantedseventy days in which to envisage and accept her fate. These werenearing the end. Lost and beaten, haggard with woe and hunger andpestilence, the city stood over against us, above the naked plain, allher outer gardens stripped away, bare light striking the red Alhambraand the Citadel. When the wind swept over her and on to Santa Fe itseemed to bring a sound of wailing and the faint and terrible odor of along besieged place. I came at eve into Santa Fe, found at last an inn of the poorer sort, ate scant supper and went to bed. Dawn came with a great ringing ofchurch bells. Out of the inn, in the throbbing street, I began my search for DonEnrique de Cerda. One told me one thing and one another, but at last Igot true direction. At noon I found him in a goodly room where he maderecovery from wounds. Now he walked and now he sat, his arm in a slingand a bandage like a turban around his head. A page took him the word Igave. "Juan Lepe. From the hermitage in the oak wood. " It sufficed. WhenI entered he gazed, then coming to me, put his unbound hand over mine. "Why, " he asked, "'Juan Lepe'?" I glanced toward the page and he dismissed him, whereupon I explainedthe circumstances. We sat by the window, and again rose for us the hermitage in the oakwood at foot of a mountain, and the small tower that slew in uglyfashion. Again we were young men, together in strange dangers, learningthere each other's mettle. He had not at all forgotten. He offered to go to Seville, as soon as Granada should fall, and findand fight Don Pedro. I shook my head. I could have done that had I seenit as the way. He agreed that Don Pedro was now the minor peril. It is evil to chainthought! In our day we think boldly of a number of things. But touchKing or touch Church--the cord is around your neck! I said that I supposed I had been rash. He nodded. "Yes. You were rash that day in the oak wood. Less rash, andmy bones would be lying there, under tree. " He rose and walked the room, then came to me and put his unhurt arm about my shoulders. "Don Jayme, we swore that day comrade love and service--and that day is now;twilight has never come to it, the leaves of the oak wood have neverfallen! The Holy Office shall not have thee!" "Don Enrique--" We sat down and drank each a little wine, and fell to ways and means. I rested Juan Lepe in the household of Don Enrique de Cerda, one figureamong many, involved in the swarm of fighting and serving men. Therewas a squire who had served him long. To this man, Diego Lopez, I wascommitted, with enough told to enlist his intelligence. He managed forme in the intricate life of the place with a skill to make god Mercuryapplaud. Don Enrique and I were rarely together, rarely were seen by mento speak one to the other. But in the inner world we were together. Days passed. We found nothing yet to do while all listening and doing atSanta Fe were bound up in the crumbling of Granada into Spanish hands. It seemed best to wait, watching chances. Meantime the show glittered, and man's strong stomach cried "Life! Morelife!" It glittered at Santa Fe before Granada, and it was a dying emberin Granada before Santa Fe. The one glittered and triumphed because theother glittered and triumphed not. And who above held the balances evenand neither sorrowed nor was feverishly elated but went his own waycould only be seen from the Vega like a dream or a line from a poet. For the most part the nobles and cavaliers in Santa Fe spent as thoughhard gold were spiritual gold to be gathered endlessly. One might say, "They go into a garden and shake tree each morning, which tree putsforth again in the night. " None seemed to see as on a map laid downSpain and the broken peasant and the digger of the gold. None seemed tofeel that toil which or soon or late they must recognize for their owntoil. Toil in Spain, toil in other and far lands whence came their richthings, toil in Europe, Arabia and India! Apparel at Santa Fe was athing to marvel at. The steed no less than his rider went gorgeous. TheKing and Queen, it was said, did not like this peacocking, but might nothelp it. They themselves were pouring gold into the lap of the Church. It was acapacious lap. Wars were general enough, God knew! But not every year could one find acamp where the friar was as common as the archer or the pikeman, and theprelate as the plumed chieftain. Santa Fe was court no less than camp, court almost as though it wereCordova. This Queen and King at least did not live at ease in palaceswhile others fought their wars. North, south, east and west, throughthe ten years, they had been the moving springs. It was an able Kingand Queen, a politic King and a sincere and godly Queen, even a lovingQueen. If only--if only-- I had been a week and more in Santa Fe when King Boabdil surrenderedGranada. He left forever the Alhambra. Granada gates opened; he rode outwith a few of his emirs and servants to meet King Ferdinand and QueenIsabella. The day shone bright. Spain towered, a figure dressed in goldand red. Santa Fe poured out to view the spectacle, and with the rest went DiegoLopez and Juan Lepe. So great festival, so vivid the color, so echoingthe sound, so stately and various the movement! Looking at the greatstrength massing there on the plain I said aloud, as I thought, to DiegoLopez, "Now they might do some worthy great thing!" The squire not answering, I became aware that a swirl in the throng hadpushed him from me. Still there came an answer in a deep and peculiarlythrilling voice. "That is a true saying and a good augury!" I learn much by voices and before I turned I knew that this was anenthusiast's voice, but not an enthusiast without knowledge. Whoeverspoke was strong enough, real enough. I liked the voice and felt acertain inner movement of friendship. Some shift among the great actors, some parting of banners, kept us suspended and staring for a moment, then the view closed against us who could only behold by snatches. Freed, I turned to see who had spoken and found a tall, strongly made, white-haired man. The silver hair was too soon; he could hardly havebeen ten years my elder. He had a long, fair face that might once havebeen tanned and hardened by great exposure. His skin had that look, butnow the bronze was faded, and you could see that he had been born veryfair in tint. Across the high nose and cheek bones went a powdering offreckles. His eyes were bluish-gray and I saw at once that he habituallylooked at things afar off. He was rather poorly dressed and pushed about as I was. When the surgeagain gave him footing, he spoke beside me. "'Now that this is over, they might do some great, worthy thing!' Very true, friend, they might!I take your words for good omen. " The throng shot out an arm and we wereparted. The same action brought back to me Diego Lopez. Speaking to himlater of the tall man, he said that he had noticed him, and that it wasthe Italian who would go to India by way of Ocean-Sea. King Boabdil gave up his city to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Over Granada, high against the bright sky, rose and floated the banners. Cannon, the big lombards, roared. Mars' music crashed out, then thetrumpets ceased their crying and instead spread a mighty chanting. _TeDeum Laudamus!_ At last the massed brightness out in the plain quivered and parted. Thepageantry broke, wide curving and returning with some freedom butwith order too, into Santa Fe. I saw the Queen and the King with theirchildren, and the Grand Cardinal, and prelates and prelates, and theMarquis of Cadiz, and many a grandee and famous knight. Don Enrique deCerda and his troop came by. Diego Lopez and I returned to the town. I saw again the man who wouldfind India by a way unpassed, as far as one knew, since the world began!He was entering a house with a friar beside him. Something came into mymind of the convent of La Rabida. CHAPTER V SOME days went by. The King and the Queen with the court and a greattrain of prelates and grandees and knights rode in state throughGranada. Don Enrique, returning, told me of it in his room at night, ofthe Christian service in the mosque and the throning in the Alhambra. "Now, " he said, "after great affairs, our affairs! I have had speechwith the Marchioness of Moya. " "That is the Queen's friend?" "Yes. Dona Beatrix de Boabdilla. We stood together by a fountain, and when she said, 'What can I do for you?' I answered, 'There issomething. ' Then while all went in pageantry before us, I told her ofthe hermitage in the oak wood and of the unhappy small tower, and of youand me and those others, and what was done that day. Don Jayme, I toldit like a minstrel who believes what he sings! And then I spoke ofto-day. She is no puny soul, nor is she in priest's grip. She acts fromher own vision, not from that of another. The Queen is no weak souleither! She also has vision, but too often she lets the churchmen takeher vision from her. But Dona Beatrix is stronger there. Well, shepromises help if we can show her how to help. " I said, "I have been thinking. It seems to me that it was wrong to comehere and put my weight upon you. " "No!" he answered. "Did we not swear then, when we were young men? Andwe needed no oaths neither. Let such thoughts be. --I am going to thepalace to-morrow, and you with me. The King and the Queen ride witha great train into Granada. But Dona Beatrix will excuse herself fromgoing. The palace will be almost empty, and we shall find her in thelittle gallery above the Queen's garden. " The next morning we went there, Don Enrique de Cerda and his squire, Juan Lepe. The palace rose great and goodly enough, with the church athand. All had been built as by magic, silken pavilions flying away andstout houses settling themselves down. Sunk among the walls had beenmanaged a small garden for the Queen and her ladies. A narrow, latticedand roofed gallery built without the Queen's rooms looked down uponorange and myrtle trees and a fountain. Here we found the Marchioness deMoya, with her two waiting damsels whom she set by the gallery door. DonEnrique kissed her hand and then motioned to me. Don Jayme de Marchenamade his reverence. She was a strong woman who would go directly to the heart of things. Always she would learn from the man himself. She asked me this and Ianswered; that and the other and I answered. "Don Pedro--?" I told theenmity there and the reason for it. "The Jewish rabbi, my great-grandfather?" I avowed it, but by three Castilian and Christiangreat-grandfathers could not be counted as Jew! Practise Judaism? No. Mygrandmother Judith had been Christian. She drove to the heart of it. "You yourself are Christian. What do youmean by that? What the Queen means? What the Grand Cardinal and theArchbishop of Granada means? What the Holy Office means?" I kept silence for a moment, then I told her as well as I might, withoutfever and without melancholy, what I had written and of the Dominican. "You have been, " she said, "an imprudent cavalier. " The fountain flashed below us, a gray dove flew over garden. I said, "There is a text, 'With all thy getting, get understanding. ' Thereis another, 'For God so loved the world'--that He wished to impartunderstanding. " She sat quiet, seeming to listen to the fountain. Then she said, "Areyou ready to avow when they ask you that in every particular to whichthe Grand Inquisitor may point you are wrong, and that all that HolyChurch through mouth of Holy Office says is right?" I said, "No, Madam! Present Church is not as large as Truth, nor as fairas Beauty. " "You may think that, but will you say the other?" "Say that church or kingdom exactly matches Truth and Beauty?" "That is what I am sure you will have to say. " "Then, no!" "I do not see, " she said, "that I can do anything for you. " There was a chair beside her. She sat down, her chin on her hand and hereyes lowered. Silence held save for the fountain plashing. Don Enriquestood by the railing, and Jayme de Marchena felt his concern. But hehimself walked just then--Don Jayme or Juan Lepe--into long patience, into greater steadfastness. Into the inner fields came translucence, gold light; came and faded, but left strength. Dona Beatrix raised her eyes and let them dwell upon me. "Spain breedsbold knights, " she said, "but not so many after all who are bold within!Not so many, I think, as are found in Italy or in France. " She paused amoment, looking at the sky above the roofs, then came back to me. "It ishopeless, and you must see it, to talk in those terms to the only powersthat can lead the Holy Office to forget that you live! It is hopelessto talk to the Queen, telling her that. She would hold that she hadentertained heresy, and her imagination would not let her alone. I seenaught in this world for you to do but to go out of it into another!There are other lands--" A damsel hurried to her from the door. "There's a stir below, Madam!Something has brought the Queen home earlier than we thought--" The Marchioness de Moya rose. Don Enrique kissed her hand, and Jayme deMarchena kissed it and thanked her. "I would help if I could!" she said. "But in Spain to-day it is deadly dangerous to talk or write as thoughthere were freedom!" She passed from the gallery, Don Enrique and I following. We came upona landing with a great stair before us. Quick as had been her maidens, they were not quick enough. Many folk were coming up the broad steps. Dona Beatrix glanced, then opened a door giving into a great room, apparently empty. She pointed to an opposite door. "The little stair!Go that way!" Don Enrique nodded comprehension. We were in the room; thedoor closed. At first it seemed an empty great chamber. Then from behind a square ofstretched cloth came a man's head, followed by the figure pertaining toit. The full man was clad after a rich fancy and he held in his hand abrush and looked at us at first dreamily and then with keenness. He knew me, differently arrayed though I was, and looked from me to DonEnrique. "Master Manuel Rodriguez, " said the latter, "I would stop forgood talk and to admire the Queen's likeness, but duty calls me out ofpalace! Adios!" He made toward the door across from that by which we hadentered. The painter spoke after us. "That door is bolted, Don Enrique, on the other side. I do not know why! It is not usually so. " Don Enrique, turning, hurried to the first door and very slightly openedit. A humming entered the large, quiet room. He closed the door. "TheQueen is coming up the great stair. The Archbishop of Granada is withher and a whole train beside!" He spoke to the painter. "I have noaudience, and for reasons would not choose this moment as one in whichto encounter the least disfavor! I will stay here before your pictureand admire until landing and stairways are bare. " "If to be invisible is your desire, " answered Manuel Rodriguez, "youhave walked into trouble! The Queen is coming here. " Don Enrique exclaimed. Juan Lepe turned eyes to the painter. The blueeyes met mine--there rose the rushy pool, there dozed the broken boat. Manuel Rodriguez spoke in his voice that was at once cool and fine anddry and warm. "It is best to dare thoroughly! Perhaps I may help you--asthus! Wishing to speak with Don Enrique of an altar painting for theChurch of Saint Dominic, I asked him here and he came. We talked, andhe will give the picture. Then, hearing the Queen's approach, he wouldinstantly have been gone, but alack, the small door is barred!--As forfisherman yonder, few look at squire when knight is in presence!" No time to debate his offer, which indeed was both wise and kind!Chamberlains flung open the door. In came the Queen, with her thePrincess Juana and several of her ladies. Beside her walked Fernando deTalavera, Her Highness's confessor, yesterday Bishop of Avila but nowArchbishop of Granada. Behind him moved two lesser ecclesiastics, andwith these Don Alonzo de Quintanella, Comptroller-General of Castile. Others followed, nobles and cavaliers, two soberly clad men who lookedlike secretaries, a Franciscan friar, three or four pages. The room waslarge and had a table covered with a rich cloth, two great chairs and afew lesser ones. The painter and Don Enrique bent low to the Majesty of Castile. In thebackground Juan Lepe made squire's obeisance. I was bearded and my facestained with a Moorish stain, and I was in shadow; it was idle to fearrecognition that might never come. The Queen seated herself, and herdaughter beside her, and with her good smile motioned the Archbishop toa chair. The two ecclesiastics, both venerable men, were given seats. The rest of the company stood. The Queen's blue eyes rested on DonEnrique. She spoke in a clear, mild voice, threaded with dignity. "Wereyou summoned thither, Don Enrique de Cerda?" He answered, "No, Highness! I came to the palace to seek Master ManuelRodriguez who is to paint for me an altarpiece for the Church of SaintDominic. You and the King, Madam, I thought were in Granada. Not findinghim in his own lodging, I made bold to come here. Then at once, before Icould hasten away, you returned!" The true nature of this Queen was to think no evil. Her countenanceremained mild. He had done valiant service, and she was sisterly-mindedtoward the greater part of the world. Now she said with serenity, "Thereis no fault, Don Enrique. Stay with us now that you are here. " Bowing deeply, he joined a brother-in-arms, Don Miguel de Silva. Hissquire stood in the shadow behind him, but found a chance-left lane ofvision down which much might be seen. The Queen composed herself, in her chair. "This is the position, MasterManuel?" The fair man, so fine and quick that I loved to look at him, bowed and stepped back to his canvas, where he took up his brush andfell to work. The Queen and the Archbishop began to speak earnestlytogether. Words and sentences floated to Juan Lepe standing by thearras. The Queen made thoughtful pauses, looking before her with steadyblue eyes and a somewhat lifted face. I noted that when she did thisManuel Rodriguez painted fast. There fell a pause in their talk. Something differing from the subjectof discourse, whatever in its fullness that might be, seemed to comeinto her mind. She sent her glance across the room. "Don Enrique de Cerda--" The tone summoned. When he was before her, "It was in my mind, " said theQueen, "to send for you within a day or two. But now you are here, andthis moment while we await the King is as good as another. We have hadletters from the Bishop of Seville whom we reverence, and from Don PedroEnriquez to whom we owe much. They have to do with Jayme de Marchena whohas long been suspect by the Holy Office. He has fled Seville, gone noneknow where! Don Pedro informs us, Don Enrique, that years ago this manstood among your friends. He does not think it probable that this is yetso--nor do I, Don Enrique, knowing that you must hold in abhorrencethe heretic!" She looked mildly upon him. "In youth we make chancefriendships thick as May, but manhood weeds the garden! And yet we thinkit possible that this man may in his heart trade on old things and makehis way to you or send you appeal. " She paused, then said in a quietvoice, "Should that happen, Don Enrique, on your allegiance, and as agood Christian, you will do all that you can to put him in the hands ofthe Holy Office. " She waited with her blue eyes upon him. He said, and said quietly, "Itwas long ago, Madam, when I was a young man and careless. I will do allthat lies in me to do. But Spain is wide and there are ships to Africaand other shores. " She said, "Yes, I do not see such an one daring to come to Santa Fe! Butthey say that ten demons possess a heretic, and that he crosses streamsupon a hair or walks edges of high walls. " With her ringed hand she made gesture of dismissal. He bowed low andstepped back to his former place. The sun flooded in at window. Manuel Rodriguez painted steadily. TheQueen sat still, with lifted face and eyes strained into distance. Shesighed and came back from wastes where she would be Christian, oh, whereshe would be Christian! and began with a tender, maternal look to talkwith her daughter. CHAPTER VI THE door giving upon the great corridor opened. One said, "The King, Madam!" King Ferdinand entered quietly, in the sober fashion of asober and able man. He was cool and balanced, true always to his ownconception of his own dues. The Queen rose and stepped to meet him. Theyspoke, standing together, after which he handed her to her chair andtook beside her the other great chair which the pages had swiftlyplaced. After greeting his daughter and the Archbishop he looked acrossto the painter. "Master Manuel Rodriguez, good day!" There fell a moment of sun-drenched quiet in which they all sat fortheir picture. Then said the King, "Madam, we are together, and here arethose who have been our chief advisers in this affair of discoveries. Master Christopherus is below. We noted him in the court. Let us havehim here and see this too-long-dragging matter finished! Once for allabate his demands, or once for all let him go!" They sent a page. Again there was sunny silence, then in at the doorcame the tall, muscular, gray-eyed, silver-haired man whom I had met theday King Boabdil surrendered Granada. He made reverence to the Queen and the King and to the Archbishop. Itwas the Queen who spoke to him and that gently. "Master Christopherus, we have had a thousand businesses, and so ourmatter here has waited and waited. Today comes unaware this quiet hourand we will give it to you. Here with us are the Archbishop and otherswho have been our counsellors, and here is Don Alonzo de Quintantellawho hath always stood your friend. In all the hurly-burly we yet tooktime, two days ago, to sit in council and come to conclusion. And now wegive you our determination. In all reason it should give you joy!" Shesmiled upon him. "How many years since first you laid your plan beforeus?" He answered her in a deep voice, thrilling and crowded with feeling. "Seven years, Madam your Highness! Like an infant laid at your feet. Andwinter has blown upon it, and sunshine carrying hope has walked aroundit, and then again the cold wind rises--" The King spoke. "Master Christopherus, in war much else has to cease! Inmuch we have had to find patience, and you have to find it. " "My lord King, yes!" replied the tall man. "It is eighteen years sincein Lisbon, looking upon the sea one day, I said to myself, 'Is there aquestion that is not to be answered? This ocean is to be crossed. Thenwhy do not I cross it? There is Cipango, Cathay and India! Gold andspices are there, and here lie ships, and between, when all is said, isonly sea! God made the sea to be sailed! Yonder they worship idols, herewe worship Christ. There are idols, here is Christ. Once a Christopheruscarried Christ across water!' Eighteen years ago. I said, 'I can do it!'I say it to-day, my lord and my lady. I can do it!" Of the seated great ones only the Queen's spirit appeared to answer his. He seemed to enchant her, to take her with him. But the King's cool faceregarded him with something like dislike. He spoke in an edged voice. "Saint Christopher asked no great wage. That is the point, MasterChristopherus, so let us to it! At last the Queen and I say 'We agree'to this enterprise, which may bring forth fruit or may not, or may meanmere empty loss of ships and men and of our monies! Yet we say 'yea. 'But we do not say 'yea ', Master Christopherus, to the too great ferryfee which you ask! I say 'ask', but verily the tone is of command!" The man whom they called Master Christopherus made a slow, wide gestureof deprecation. The Archbishop took the word. "Too much! You ask ahundred times too much! I must say to you that it is unchristianlyarrogance. You talk like a soldan!" An assenting murmur came from theother ecclesiastics. The Queen spoke. "Master Christopherus, if it be a great thing to do, isnot the doing it and thereby blessing yourself no less than others--isnot that reward? Not that Castile shall deny you reward, no! Trust methat if you bring us the key of India you shall not find us niggardly!But we and they who advise us stumble at your prescribing wealth, honorsand gifts that they say truly are better fitting a great prince! Trustus for enrichment and for honor do you come back with the great thingdone! Leave it all now to Time that brings to pass. So you will beclearer to go forth to the blessed carrying of Christ!" She spoke earnestly, a Queen, but with much about her of womanly, motherly sweetness. I saw that she greatly liked the man and somewheremet his spirit. But the King was gathering hardness. He spoke to asecretary standing behind him. "Have you it there written down, theItalian's demand?" The man produced a paper. "Read!" But before it could be unfolded, Master Christopherus spoke. "'Italian!' Seven years in Spain and ten in Portugal, and a good whilein Porto Santo that belongs to Portugal, a little in England and inUltima Thule or Iceland, and long, long years upon ships decked andundecked in all the seas that are known--fourteen years, childhood andboyhood, in Genoa and at Pavia where I went to school, and all my yearsof hope in Christ's Kingdom, and in the uplands of great doers-andyour Highness says to me for a slighting word, 'Italian!' I was bornin Italy, but to-day, for this turn, King Ferdinand, you should call me'Spaniard'! As, if King John sends me forth be will call me Portuguese!Or King Henry will say, 'Christopher the Englishman' or King Charles, towhom verily I see that I may go, shall say, 'Frenchman, to whom all owethe marriage of East and West, but France owes Empire!"' The King said, "It may be so, or it may not be so, MasterChristopherus. --Read!" The secretary read: The Genoese, Cristoforo Colombo, called in SpainCristobal Colon, and in the Latin Christopherus Columbus, states anddemands in substance as follows: Sailing westward he will discover forthe King and Queen of the Spains the Indies and Cathay and Cipango, to the great glory and enrichment of these Sovereigns and the passingthereby of Spain ahead of Portugal, and likewise and above all to thegreat glory of Christ and of Holy Church. He will do this, having seenit clear for many years that it is to be done, and he the instrument. And for the finding by going westward of the said India and all the gainof the world and the Kingdom of God and of our Sovereigns the King DonFerdinand and the Queen Dona Isabella, he bargaineth thus: "He shall be named Admiral of the Ocean-Sea, whereby he means thewhole water west of the line drawn by the Holy Father for the King ofPortugal. He shall be made Viceroy and Governor of all continents andislands that he may discover, claim and occupy for the Sovereigns. Andthe said Christopherus Columbus's eldest son shall hold these officesafter him, and the heir of his son, and his heir, down time. He shall begranted one tenth of all gold, pearls, precious stones, spices, orother merchandise found or bought or exchanged within his admiralty andviceroyship, and this tithe is likewise to be taken by his heirs fromgeneration to generation. He or one that he shall name shall be judge inall disputes that arise in these continents and islands, so be it thatthe honor of the Sovereigns of Spain is not touched. He shall have thesalary that hath the High Admiral of Castile. He and his family shallbe ennobled and henceforth be called Don and Dona. And for the immediatesailing of ships he may, if he so desire, be at an eighth of the expenseof outfitting, for which he shall be returned an eighth of all theprofit of this the first voyage. " The secretary did not make the terms less sounding by his reading. Wind in leaves, went a stir through the room. I heard a page near mewhispering, "O Sancta Maria! The hanger-on, the needy one! Since thebeginning of time I've seen him at doors, sunny and cloudy days, thebig, droning bee!" Manuel Rodriguez painted on. I felt his thought. "Ishould like to paint _you_, Admiral of the Ocean-Sea!" The room recomposed itself. Out of silence came the King's voice, chilland dry. "We abate so vast a claim for so vast reward! But we would benaught else but just, and in our ability lavish. Read now what we willdo!" The secretary read. It had a certain largeness and goodliness, as gorewards for adventure, even for great adventure, what the sovereignswould do. The room thought it should answer. The King spoke, "Wecan promise no more nor other than this. It contents you, MasterChristopherus?" The long-faced, high-nosed, gray-eyed man answered, "No, my lord King. " "Your own terms or none?" "Mine or none, your Highness. " The King's voice grew a cutting wind. "To that the Queen and I answer, 'Ours or none!'" Pushing back his chair, he glanced at sun out ofwindow. "It is over. I incline to think that it was at best but an emptyvision. You are dismissed, Master Christopherus!" The Genoese, bowing, stepped backward from the table. In his face andcarriage was nothing broken. He kept color. The Queen's glance wentafter him, "What will you do now, Master Christopherus?" He answered, "My lady, your Highness, I shall take horse to-morrow forFrance. " The King said, "France?--King Charles buys ever low, not high!" The Sovereigns and the great churchmen and the less great went awaytogether. After them flowed the high attendance. All went, Don Enriqueamong the last. Following him, I turned head, for I wished to observeagain two persons, the painter Manuel Rodriguez and the Admiral of theOcean-Sea. The former painted on. The latter walked forth quite alone, coming behind the grinning pages. In the court below I saw him again. The archway to street sent toward usa deep wedge of shadow. He had a cloak which he wrapped around him anda large round hat which he drew low over his gray-blue eyes. With a firmstep he crossed to the archway where the purple shadow took him. Juan Lepe must turn to his own part which now must be decided. I walkedbehind Don Enrique de Cerda through Santa Fe. With him kept Don Miguelde Silva, who loved Don Enrique's sister and would still talk of_devoir_ and of plans, now that the war was ended. When the house wasreached he would enter with us and still adhere to Don Enrique. But atthe stair foot the latter spoke to the squire. "Find me in an hour, JuanLepe. I have something to say to thee!" His tone carried, "Do you thinkthe place there makes any difference? No, by the god of friends!" I let him go thinking that I would come to him presently. But I, too, had to act under the god of friends. In Diego Lopez's room I foundquill and ink and paper, and there I wrote a letter to Don Enrique, andfinding Diego gave it to him to be given in two hours into Don Enrique'shand. Then Juan Lepe the squire changed in his own room, narrow and bareas a cell, to the clothing of Juan Lepe the sailor. CHAPTER VII DUSK was drawing down as I stole with little trouble out of the houseinto the street and thence into the maze of Santa Fe. That night I sleptwith minstrels and jugglers, and at sunrise slipped out of Cordova gatewith muleteers. They were for Cordova and I meant to go to Malaga. Imeant to find there a ship, maybe for Africa, maybe for Italy, though inItaly, too, sits the Inquisition. But who knows what it is that turnsa man, unless we call it his Genius, unless we call it God? I letthe muleteers pass me on the road to Cordova, let them dwindle in thedistance. And still I walked and did not turn back and find the Malagaroad. It was as though I were on the sea, and my bark was hanging in acalm, waiting for a wind to blow. A man mounted on a horse was comingtoward me from Santa Fe. Watching the small figure grow larger, I said, "When he is even with me and has passed and is a little figure again inthe distance, I will turn south. " He came nearer. Suddenly I knew him to be that Master Christopherus whohad entered the wedge of shadow yesterday in the palace court. He wasout of it now, in the broad light, on the white road--on the way toFrance. He approached. The ocean before Palos came and stood againbefore me, salt and powerful. The keen, far, sky line of it awoke anddrew! Christopherus Columbus came up with me. I said, "A Palos sailor givesyou good morning!" Checking the horse, he sat looking at me out of blue-gray eyes. I sawhim recollecting. "Dress is different and poorer, but you are the squirein the crowd! 'Sailor Palos sailor'--There's some meaning there too!" He seemed to ponder it, then asked if I was for Cordova. "No. I am going to Malaga where I take ship. " "This is not the Malaga road. " "No. But I am in no hurry! I should like to walk a mile with you. " "Then do it, " he answered. "Something tells me that we shall not be illtravelers together. " I felt that also and no more than he could explain it. But the reason, Iknow, stands in the forest behind the seedling. He walked his horse, and I strode beside. He asked my name and I gaveit. Juan Lepe. We traveled Cordova road together. Presently he said, "Ileave Spain for France, and do you know why?" Said Juan Lepe, "I have been told something, and I have gatheredsomething with my own eyes and ears. You would reach Asia by goingwest. " He spoke in the measured tone of a recital often made alike to himselfand to others. "I hold that the voyage from Palos, say, first southto the Canaries and then due west would not exceed three months. YetI began to go west to India full eighteen years ago! I have voyagedeighteen years, with dead calms and head winds, with storms andback-puttings, with pirates and mutinies, with food and water lacking, with only God and my purpose for friend! I have touched at the court ofPortugal and at the court of Spain, and, roundabout way, at the court ofEngland, and at the houses of the Doges of Venice and of Genoa. Theyall kept me swinging long at anchor, but they have never given mea furthering wind. Eighteen years going to India! But why do I sayeighteen? The Lord put me forth from landside the day I was born. BeforeI was fourteen, at the school in Pavia, He said, 'Go to sea. Sail underthy cousin Colombo and learn through long years all the inches of saltwater. ' Later He said, one day when we were swinging off Alexandria, 'Study! Teach thyself! Buy books, not wine nor fine clothes nor favorof women. Study on land and study at sea. Look at every map that comesbefore you. Learn to make maps. When a world map comes before you, lookat the western side of it and think how to fill it out knowingly. Listento seamen's tales. Learn to view the invisible and to feel under footthe roundness of my earth!' "And He said that same year off Aleppo, 'Learn to command ships. Learnin King Reinier's war and in what other war Genoa makes. Learn to directmen and patiently to hear them, winding in and out of their counsels, keeping thyself always wiser than they. ' Well, I studied, and learned, and can command a ship or ships, and know navigation, and can make mapsand charts with the best, and can rule seamen, loving them the while. Long ago, I went to that school which He set, and came forth _magister!_Long after His first speaking, I was at Porto Santo, well named, andthere He said, 'Seek India, going westward. '" He turned his face to thesun. "I have been going to India fifty-six years. " Juan Lepe asked, "Why, on yesterday, were you not content with the Kingand Queen's terms? They granted honor and competence. It was the estateof a prince that you asked. " Some moments passed before he answered. The sun was shining, the roadwhite and dusty, the mountains of Elvira purple to the tops and theresplashed with silver. When he spoke, his voice was changed. Neither nownor hereafter did he discourse of money-gold and nobility flowing fromearthly kings with that impersonal exaltation with which he talked ofhis errand from God to link together east and west. But he drew themsomehow in train from the last, hiding here I thought, an earthlyweakness from himself, and the weakness so intertwined with strengththat it was hard to divide parasite from oak. "Did you see, " he asked, "a boy with me? That was my son Diego whom Ihave left with a friend in Santa Fe. Fernando, his half-brother, is buta child. I shall see him in Cordova. I have two brothers, dear to meboth of them, Diego and Bartholomew. My old father, Dominico Colombo, still lives in Genoa. He lives in poverty, as I have lived in povertythese many years. And there is Pedro Correo, to whom I owe much, husbandof my wife's sister. My wife is dead. The mother of Fernando is not mywife, but I love her, and she is poor though beautiful and good. I wouldhave her less poor; I would give her beautiful things. I have love formy kindred, --love and yearning and care and desire to do them good, alike those who trust me and those who think that I had failed them. Ido not fail them!" We padded on upon the dusty road. I felt his inner warmth, divined hislife. But at last I said, "What the Queen and King promise would giverich care--" "I have friends too, for all that I ride out of Spain and seem so poorand desolate! I would repay--ay, ten times over--their faith and theirhelp. " "Still--" "There are moreover the poor, and those who study and need booksand maps that they cannot purchase. There are convents--one conventespecially--that befriended me when I was alone and nigh hopeless andfurthered my cause. I would give that convent great gifts. " Turning inthe saddle he looked southwest. "Fray Juan Perez--" Palos shore spread about me, and rose La Rabida, white among vineyardsand pines. Doves flew over cloister. But I did not say all I knew. "There are other things that I would do. I do not speak of them to many!They would say that I was mad. But great things that in this age noneelse seems inclined to do!" "As what?" I asked. "I have been called mad myself. I am not apt tothink you so. " He began to speak of a mighty crusade to recover the Holy Sepulchre. The road to Cordova stretched sunny and dusty. Above the mountains ofElvira the sky stood keen blue. Juan Lepe said slowly, "Admiral ofthe Ocean-Sea and Viceroy and Governor of continents and islands inperpetuity, sons and sons' sons after you, and gilded deep with a tenthof all the wealth that flows forever from Asia over Ocean-Sea toSpain, and you and all after you made nobles, grandees and wealthy fromgeneration to generation! Kings almost of the west, and donors to theeast, arousers of crusades and freers of the Sepulchre! You build a hightower!" Carters and carts going by pushed us to the edge of road and coveredall with dust. He waited until the cloud sank, then he said, "Do youknow--but you cannot know what it is to be sent from pillar to post andwait in antechambers where the air stifles, and doff cap--who havebeen captain of ships!--to chamberlain, page and lackey? To be calleddreamer, adventurer, dicer! To hear the laugh and catch the sneer! To bethe persuader, the beggar of good and bad, high and low--to beg yearin and year out, cold and warmth, summer and winter, sunrise, noon andsunset, calm and storm, beg of galleon and beg of carrack, yea, beg ofcockboat! To see your family go needy, to be doubted by wife and childand brethren and friends and acquaintance! To have them say, 'While youdream we go hungry!' and 'What good will it do us if there is India, while we famish in Spain?' and 'You love us not, or you would become aprosperous sea captain!'--Not one year but eighteen, eighteen, since Isaw in vision the sun set not behind water but behind vale and hill andmountain and cities rich beyond counting, and smelled the spice draughtfrom the land!" I saw that he must count upon huge indemnity. We all dream indemnity. But still I thought and think that there was here a weakness in him. Farinward he may have known it himself, the outer self was so busy findinggrounds! After a moment he spoke again, "Little things bring littlereward. But to keep proportion and harmony, great thing must bring greatthings! You do not know what it is to cross where no man hath crossedand to find what no man hath found!" "Yes, it is a great thing!" "Then, " said he, "what is it, that which I ask, to the grandeur oftime!" He spoke with a lifted face, eyes upon the mountain crests and the bluethey touched. They were nearer us than they had been; the Pass of Elvirawas at hand. Yet on I walked, and before me still hung the far oceanwest of Palos. I said, "I know something of the guesses, the chances andthe dangers, but I have not spent there years of study--" He kindled, having an auditor whom he chose to think intelligent. Hechecked his horse, that fell to grazing the bit of green by the way. "Asthough, " he said, "I stood in Cipango beneath a golden roof, I know thatit can be done! Twelve hundred leagues at the most. Look!" he said. "Youare not an ignoramus like some I have met; nor if I read you right areyou like others who not knowing that True Religion is True Wonder upwith hands and cry, 'Blasphemy, Sacrilege and Contradiction!' Earthand water make an orb. Place ant on apple and see that orbs may begone around! Travel far enough and east and west change names! Straightthrough, beneath us, are other men. " "Feet against feet. Antipodes, " I said. "All the life of man is takingWonder in and making Her at home!" "So!" he answered. "Now look! The largeness of our globe is at theequator. The great Ptolemy worked out our reckoning. Twenty-four hours, fifteen degrees to each, in all three hundred and sixty degrees. It isheld that the Greeks and the Romans knew fifteen of these hours. Theystretched their hand from Gibraltar and Tangier, calling them Pillarsof Hercules, to mid-India. Now in our time we have the Canaries and theKing of Portugal's new islands--another hour, mark you! Sixteen fromtwenty-four leaves eight hours empty. How much of that is water and howmuch is earth? Where ends Ocean-Sea and where begins India and Cathay, of which the ancients knew only a part? The Arabian Alfraganus thinksthat Ptolemy's degrees should be less in size. If that be right, thenthe earth is smaller than is thought, and India nearer! I myself inclineto hold with Alfraganus. It may be that less than two months' sailing, calm and wind, would bring us to Cipango. Give me the ships and I willdo it!" "You might have had them yesterday. " To a marked extent he could bring out and make visible his innerexaltation. Now, tall, strong, white-haired, he looked a figure of anolder world. "The spheres and all are set to harmony!" he said. "I wouldhave fitness. Great things throughout! Diamonds and rubies without flawin the crown. --We will talk no more about abating just demand!" I agreed with a nod, and indeed there was never any shaking him here. Beneath his wide and lofty vision of a world filled out to the eternalbenefit of all rested always this picture which I knew he savored likewine and warmth. His family, his sons, his brothers and kindred, theaged father in Genoa, all friends and backers--and he a warm sun in themidst of them, all their doubts of him dispelled, shining out upon them, making every field rich, repaying a thousand, thousandfold every trustshown him. The day sang cool and high and bright, the mountains of Elvira had lightsnow atop. Master Christopherus began again to speak. "There came ashore at Porto Santo some years ago a piece of wood long asa spar but thicker. Pedro Correo, who is my brother-in-law, saw it. Itwas graved all over, cut by something duller than our knives with beastsand leaves and a figure that Pedro thought was meant for an idol. He andanother saw it and agree in their description. They left it on the beachat twilight, well out of water reach. But in the night came up a greatstorm that swept it away. It came from the west, the wind having blownfor days from that quarter. I ask you will empty billows fell a tree andtrim it and carve it? It is said that a Portuguese pilot picked up onelike it off Cape Bojador when the wind was southwest. I have heard aman of the Azores tell of giant reeds pitched upon his shore _from thewest_. There is a story of the finding on the beach of Flores the bodiesof two men not like any that we know either in color or in feature. Fordays a west wind had driven in the seas. And I know of other findings. Whence do these things come? "May there not be unknown islands west of Azores? They might come fromthere, and still to the west of them stream all Ocean-Sea, violent andunknown! The learned think the earth of such a size. Your Arabian holdsit smaller. What if it is larger than the largest calculation?" He said with disdain, "All the wise men at Salamanca before whom theKing set me six years ago thought it had no end! Large or small, theycalled it blasphemy for me, a poor, plain seaman, son of a wool-comberand not even a Spanish wool-comber, to try to stretch mind over it!Ocean-Sea had never been overpassed, and by that token could not beoverpassed! None had met its dangers, so dangers there must be of a moststrange and fearful nature! But if you were put to sea at fourteen andhave lived there long, water becomes water! A speck on the horizon willturn out ship or land. Wave carries you on to wave, day to night andnight to day. At last there is port!" All this time his horse had been cropping the scanty herbage. Now heraised his head. In a moment we too heard the horsemen and looking backtoward Santa Fe saw four approaching. As they came nearer we made outtwo cavaliers talking together, followed by serving men. When they werealmost at hand one of the leaders said something, whereat his fellowlaughed. It floated up Cordova road, a wide, deep, rich laugh. MasterChristopherus started. "That is the laugh of Don Luis de St. Angel!" Don Luis de St. Angel was, I knew, Receiver of the EcclesiasticalRevenues for Aragon, a man who stood well with the King. The horsemenwere close upon us. Suddenly the laugher cried, "Saint Jago! Here heis!" We were now five mounted men and a trudger afoot. The cavalier who hadlaughed, a portly, genial person with a bold and merry eye, laughedagain. "Well met, Don Cristoval. Well met, Admiral! I looked to find youpresently! You sailed out of port at sunrise and I two hours later witha swifter ship and more canvas--" "'Don' and 'Admiral'!" answered Master Christopherus, and he spoke withanger. "You jest in Spain! But in France it shall be said soberly--" "No, no! Don and Admiral here! Viceroy and Governor here--as soon as youfind the lands! Wealthy here--as soon as you put hand on the gold!" DonLuis de St. Angel's laughter ceased. He became with portentous swiftnessa downright, plain man of business. He talked, all of us clusteredtogether on the Cordova road. "The Archbishop kept me from that audience yesterday, leaving Don Alonsode Quintanella your only friend there! The Queen was tired, the Kingfretted. They thought they had come a long way, and there you stood, Master Christopherus, shaking your head! Don Alonso told me about it, and how hopeless it seemed! But I said, 'If you conquer a land don't youput in a viceroy? I don't see that Don Cristoval isn't as good asDon This One, or Don That One! I've a notion that the first might notoppress and flay the new subjects as might the last two! That is a pointto be made to the Queen! As for perpetuity of office and privileges downthe ages, most things get to be hereditary. If it grows to be a swollenserpent something in the future will fall across and cut it in two. Lettime take care of it! As for wealth, in any land a man who will bear aneighth of the cost may fairly expect an eighth of the gain. This settingout is to cost little, after all. He says he can do it with three smallships and less than a hundred and fifty men. If the ships bring back notreasure, he will not be wealthy. If there is a little gain, the Spainsneed not grudge him his handful of doubloons. If there is huge gain, theKing and Queen but for him would not have their seven eighths. The samereasoning applies to his tenth of all future gain from continents andislands. You will say that some one else will arise to do it for us oneasier terms. Perhaps--and perhaps not for a century, and another Crownmay thrust in to-morrow! France, probably. It is not impossiblethat England might do it. As for what is named overweening pride andpresumption, at least it shows at once and for altogether. We are notleft painfully to find it out. It goes with his character. Take it orleave it together with his patience, courage and long head. Leave it, and presently we may see France or England swallow him whole. Hewill find India and Cathay and Cipango, and France or England will bebuilding ships, ships, ships! Blessed Virgin above us!' said I, 'If Icould talk alone to the Sovereigns, I think I could clench it!'" "'Then let us go now to the palace, ' says Don Alonso, 'and begaudience!' "That did we, Don Cristoval, and so I hail you 'Don' and 'Admiral', andbeg you to turn that mule and reenter Santa Fe! In a few days you andthe King and Queen may sign capitulations. " "Was it the Queen?" "Just. The King said the treasury was drained. She answered, 'I willpawn my jewels but he shall sail!' Luis de St. Angel says, 'It does notneed. There is some gold left in the coffers of Aragon. After all, the man asks but three little ships and a few score seamen and offershimself to furnish one of the ships. '" "With Martin Alonso Pinzon's help, I will!" "'Never, ' said I to their majesties, 'was so huge a possible gainmatched against so small a sending forth! And as for this Genoese whotruly hath given and gives and will give his life for his vision, saithnot Scripture that a laborer is worthy of his hire?' At which the Queensaid with decision, 'We will do it, Don Luis! And now go and find MasterChristopherus and comfort him, whose heart must be heavy, and indeedmine, ' she saith, 'was heavy when he went forth to-day, and a voiceseemed to say within me, "What have you done, Isabella? How may you havehindered!"'" The Gatherer of Ecclesiastical Revenues laughed again with thatcompelling laughter. "So forth we go, and Don Alonso sends for you tohis house. But you could not be found. Early this morning came one andinformed us that the ship had put out of harbor, whereupon my nephew andI set sail after!" The Admiral of the Ocean-Sea turned his face to the west. Not knowing, I think, what he did, he raised his arm, outstretched it, and the handseemed to close in greeting. His face was the face of a man who sees theBeloved after long and sorrowful absence. So did thought and passionand vision charge his frame and his countenance, that for a moment trulythere was effulgence. It startled. Don Luis held his speech suspended, in his eyes wonder. Master Christopherus let fall his arm. He sighed. The out-pushing light faltered, vanished. One might say, if one chose, "A Genoese sea captain, willing to do an adventurous thing and make apurse thereby!" CHAPTER VIII JUAN LEPE, quitting the Vega of Granada, recrossed the mountains. I wasat wander. I did not go to Malaga. I did not then go to Palos. I went toSan Lucar. I had adventures, but I will not draw them here. The ocean byPalos continued with me in sight and sound and movement. But I did notgo to Palos. I went to the strand of San Lucar, and there I found asmall bark trading not to Genoa but to Marseilles. Seamen lacked, andthe master took me gladly. I freshened knowledge upon this voyage. The master was a dour, quiet Catalan; his three sons favored him andtheir six sailors more or less took the note. The sea ran quiet and blueunder a quiet blue heaven. At night all the stars shone, or only lightclouds went overhead. It was a restful boat and Jayme de Marchenarested. Even while his body labored he rested. The sense of Danger inevery room, walking on every road, took leave. Yet was there throughoutthat insistent sight of Palos beach and the gray and wild Atlantic. Allthe birds cried from the west; the salt, stinging wind flung itself uponme from the west. Once a voice, faint and silvery, made itself heard. "Were it not well to know those other, those mightier waters, and findthe strange lands, the new lands?" I answered myself, "They are the oldlands taken a new way. " But still the voice said, "The new lands!" We made Marseilles and unladed, and were held there a fortnight. I mighthave left the bark and found work and maybe safety in France, or I mighthave taken another ship for Italy. I did neither. I clung to this barkand my Cata-lans. We took our lading and quitted Marseilles, and cameafter a tranquil voyage to San Lucar. Again we unladed and laded, andagain voyaged to Marseilles. Spring became summer; young summer, summerin prime. We left Marseilles and voyaged once more San Lucar-ward. There rushed up a fearful storm and we were wrecked off Almeria. One laddrowned. The rest of us somehow made shore. A boat took us to Algeciras, and thence we trudged it to San Lucar. My Catalans were not wholly depressed. Behind their wrecked ship stoodmerchants who would furnish another bark. The master would have had mewait at San Lucar until he went forth again. But I was bound for thestrand by Palos and the gray, piling Atlantic. August was the month and the day warm. The first of August in the year1492. Two leagues east of Palos I overtook three men trudging thatway, and talking now loudly and angrily and now in a sullen, draggingfashion. I had seen between this road and ocean a fishing hamlet and Imade out that they were from this place. They were men of smallboats, men who fished, but who now and again were gathered in by someshipmaster, when they became sailors. In me they saw only a poorly clad, sea-going person. When I gavegreeting they greeted me in return. "For Palos?" I asked, and the onewho talked the most and the loudest gave groaning assent. "Aye, forPalos. You too, brother, are flopping in the net?" I did not understand and said as much. He gave an angry laugh andexplained his figure. "Why, the Queen and the King and the law andMartin Pinzon, to whom we, are bound for a year, are pressing us! Whichis to say they've cast a net and here we are, good fish, beating againstthe meshes and finding none big enough to slip through! Haven't you beenpressed too, scooped in without a 'By your leave, Palos fish!' A hundredfish and more in this net and one by one the giant will take us out andbroil us!" The second man spoke with a whine. "I had rather a Barbary pirate werecoming aboard! I had rather be took slave and row a galley!" The third, a young man, had a whimsical, dark, fearless face. "But we begoing to see strange things and serve the Queen! That's something!" "The Queen is just a lady. She don't know anything about deep andfearful seas!" "Where are you going, " I asked, "and with whom?" The angry man answered, "The last of that is the easiest, mate! With anItalian sorcerer who has bewitched the great! He ought to be burned, sayI, with the Jews and heretics! We are going with him, and we are goingwith Captain Martin Pinzon, whom he hath bewitched with the rest! And weare going with three ships, the _Santa Maria_, the Pinta and the Nina. " The third said, "The Santa Maria's a good boat. " "There isn't any boat, good or bad, " the first answered him, "that canhold together when you come to heat that'll melt pitch and set woodafire! There isn't any boat, good or bad, that can stand it when alodestone as big as Gibraltar begins to draw iron!" The second, whose element was melancholy, sighed, "I've been north ofIreland, Pedro, and that was bad enough! The lookout saw a siren and the_Infanta Isabella_ was dashed on the rocks and something laughed at usall night!" "Ireland's nothing at all to it!" answered the angry man, whose name wasPedro. "I've heard men that know talk! The Portuguese going down Africacoast got to Cape Bojador, but they've never truly gotten any further, though I hear them say they have! They sent a little carrack furtherdown, and it had to come back because the water fell to boiling! Therewasn't any land and there wasn't any true sea, but it was all melted uptogether in fervent heat! Like hot mud, so to speak. It's hell, that'swhat I say; it's hell down there! Moreover, there ain't any heavenstretched over it. " "What does it mean by that?" asked the second. "It means, Fernando, that there wouldn't be any sky, blue nor gray norblack, nor clouds, nor air to breathe! There wouldn't be any thunder andlightning nor rain nor wind, and at night there wouldn't be stars, nonorth star, nor any! It would just be--I don't know what! Fray Ignatiotold me, and he said the name was 'chaos'. " "That was south. That wasn't west. " "West is just as bad!" Fernando also addressed the young man, the third, calling him Sancho. "If there were anything west for Christian men, wouldn't the Holy Fatherat Rome have sent long ago? We are all going to die!" "But they didn't know it was round, " said Sancho. "Now we do, and that'sthe difference! If you started a little manikin just here on an orangeand told him to go straight ahead, he'd come around home, wouldn't he?" "You weary me, Sancho!" cried the first. "And what if you did thatand it took so long that you come back to Fishertown old and bald anddriveling, and your wife is dead and all the neighbors! Much good you'dhave from knowing it was round!" "When you got right underfoot wouldn't you fall; that's what I want toknow?" "Fall! Fall where?" "Into the sky! My God, it's deep! And there wouldn't be any boat to pickyou up nor any floating oar to catch by--" The vision seemed to appall them. Fernando drew back of hand acrosseyes. I came in. "You wouldn't do that any more than the ant falls off theorange! Men have come back who have been almost underfoot, so far to theeast had they traveled. They found there men and kingdoms and ways notso mightily unlike ours. " "They went that way, " answered Pedro, jerking his hand eastward, "overgood land! And maybe, whatever they said, they were lying to us! I'mthinking most of the learned do that all the time!" "Well, " said Sancho, "if we do come back, we'll have some rare goodtales to tell!" There fell a pause at that, a pause of dissent and exasperation, butalso one of caught fancy. It would undoubtedly be a glory to tell thosetales to a listening, fascinated Fishertown! Juan Lepe said, "For months I've been with a trader running from SanLucar to Marseilles. I've had no news this long while! What's doing atPalos?" They were ready for an audience, any audience, and forthwith I had thestory of the Admiral fairly straight--or I could make it straight--fromthat day when we parted on the Cordova road. These men did not know whathad happened in March or in April, but they knew something of May. InMay he came to Palos and settled down with Fray Juan Perez in La Rabida, and to see him went Captain Martin Pinzon who knew him already, and thephysician Garcia Fernandez and others, and they all talked togetherfor a day and a night. After that the alcalde of Palos and others inauthority had letters and warrants from the Queen and the King, and theyoverbore everything, calling him Don and _El Almirante_ and saying thathe must be furnished forth. Then came a day when everybody was gatheredin the square before the church of Saint George, and the alcalde thathad a great voice read the letters. "I was there!" said Fernando. "I brought in fish that morning. " "I, too!" quoth Sancho. "I had to buy sailcloth. " It was Pedro chiefly who talked. "They were from the King and Queen, andthe moral was that Palos must furnish Don Cristoval Colon, Admiral ofthe Ocean-Sea--and we thought that was a curious thing to be admiralof!--two ships and all seamen needed and all supplies. A third shipcould be enterprised, and any in and around Palos was to be encouragedto put in fortune and help. Ships and those who went in them were toobey the said Don Cristoval Colon or Columbus as though he were theQueen and the King, the Bishop of Seville and the Marquis of Cadiz!It didn't say it just that way but that was what it meant. We were tofollow him and do as he told us, or it would be much the worse for us!We weren't to put in at St. George la Mina on the coast of Africa, nortouch at the King of Portugal's islands, and that was the whole of it!" "All seamen were to be given good pay, " said Sancho. "And if anybodygoing was in debt, or even if he had done a crime--so that it wasn'ttreason or anything the Holy Office handles--he couldn't be troubledor held back, seeing it was royal errand. That is very convenient forsome. " Pedro lost patience. "You'd make the best of Hell itself!" "He'd deny, " put in Fernando, "Holy Writ that says there shall besorrows!" They embarked upon loud blame of Sancho, instance after instance. Atlast I cut them across. "What further happened at Palos?" They put back to that port. "Oh, it didn't seem so bad that day! One andanother thought, 'Perhaps I'll go!' Him they call The Admiral is a bigfigure of a man, and of course we that use the sea get to know how agood captain looks. We knew that he had sailed and sailed, and had hadhis own ship, maybe two or three of them! Then too the Pinzons and thePrior of La Rabida answered for him. A lot of us almost belong to thePinzons, having signed to fish and voyage for them, and the Prior isa well-liked man. The alcalde folds up the letter as though he were inchurch, and they all come down the steps and go away to the alcalde'shouse which is around the corner. It wasn't until they were gone thatPalos began to ask, 'Where were three ships and maybe a hundred andfifty men _going_?'" "We found out next day, " said Fernando. "The tide went out, but it cameback bearing the sound of where we were going!" "Then what happened in Palos?" "What happened was that they couldn't get the ships and they couldn'tget the men! Palos wouldn't listen. It was too wild, what they wantedto do! It wouldn't listen to the Prior and it wouldn't listen to DoctorGarcia Fernandez, and it wouldn't even listen to Captain Martin AlonsoPinzon. And when that happens--! So for a long time there was a kindof angry calm. And then, lo you! we find that they have written to theQueen and the King. There come letters to Palos, and they are harshones!" "I never heard harsher from any King and Queen!" said Fernando. "There weren't only the letters, but they'd sent also a great man, SenorJuan de Penelosa, to see that they got obedience. Upshot is we've got togo, ships and men, or else be laid by the heels! As for Palos, her oldsea privileges would be taken from her, and she couldn't face that. Getthose ships ready and stock them and pipe sailors aboard, or there'd beour kind Queen and King to deal with!" "Wherever it is, we're going. Great folk are too tall and broad for us!" "So there comes another crowd in the square, before the church. Outsteps Captain Martin Pinzon, and he cries, 'Men of Palos, for all youdoubt it, 'tis a glorious thing that's doing! Here is the _Nina_ that mybrothers and I own. She's going with Don Cristoval the Admiral, and themen who are bound to me for fishing and voyaging are going, and morethan that, there is going Martin Alonso Pinzon, for I'll ask no man togo where I will not go!' "Then up beside him starts his brothers Vicente and Francisco, and theysay they are going too. Fray Ignatio stands on the church steps andcries that there are idolaters there, and he will go to tell themabout our Lord Jesus Christ! Then the alcalde gets up and says thatthe Sovereigns must be obeyed, and that the _Santa Maria_ and the Pintashall be made ready. Then the pilots Sancho Ruiz and Pedro Nino andBartolomeo Roldan push out together and say they'll go, and othersfollow, seeing they'll have to anyhow! So it went that day and the nextand the next, until now they've pressed all they need. So I say, we arehere, brother, flopping in the net!" "When does he sail?" "Day after to-morrow, 'tis said. But we who don't live in Palos have ourorders to be there to-night. Aren't you going too, mate?" I answered that I hadn't thought of it, and immediately, out of thewhole, there rose and faced me, "You have thought of it all the time!" Sancho spoke. "If you'll go with us to Captain Martin Pinzon, he'llenter you. He'd like to get another strong man. " I said, "I don't know. I'll have to think of it. Here is Palos, andyonder the headland with La Rabida. " We entered the town. They would have had me go with them wherever theymust report themselves. But I said that I could not then, and at themouth of their street managed to leave them. I passed through Palos andbeyond its western limit came again to that house of the poorest whereI had lodged six months before and waking all night had heard the Tintoflowing by like the life of a man. Long ago I had had some training inmedicine, and in mind's medicine, and three years past I had brought ayoung working man living then in Marchena out of illness and melancholy. His parents dwelled here in this house by the Tinto and they gave meshelter. CHAPTER IX RISING at dawn, I walked to the sea and along it until I came at last tothose dunes beneath which I had stretched myself that day of grayness. Now it was deep summer, blue and gold, and the air all balm andcaressing. The evening before I had seen the three ships where theyrode in river mouth. They were caravels, and only the _Santa Maria_, thelargest, was fully decked. Small craft with which to find India, overa road of a thousand leagues--or no road, for road means that men havetoiled there and traveled there--no road, but a wilderness plain, awater desert! The Arabians say that Jinn and Afrits live in the desertaway from the caravans. If you go that way you meet fearful things andnever come forth again. The Santa Maria, the _Pinta_ and the Nina. TheSanta Maria could be Master Christopherus's ship. Bright point that washis banner could be made out at the fore. Palos waterside, in a red-filtered dusk, had been a noisy place, but thenoise did not ring genially. I gathered that this small port was morelargely in the mood of Pedro and Fernando than in that of Sancho. Itlooked frightened and it looked sullen and it looked angry. The old woman by the Tinto talked garrulously. Thankful was she that herson Miguel dwelled ten leagues away! Else surely they would have takenhim, as they were taking this one's son and that one's son! To hearher you would think of an ogre--of Polyphemus in the cave--reaching outfatal hand for this or that fattened body. Nothing then, she said, to dobut to pinch and save so that one might pay the priest for masses! Shetold me with great eyes that a hundred leagues west of Canaries one cameto a sea forest where all the trees were made of water growing up highand spreading out like branches and leaves, and that this forest wasfilled with sea wolves and serpents and strange beasts all made of seawater, but they could sting and rend a man very ghastly. After that youcame to sirens that you could not help leaping to meet, but they putlips to men's breasts and sucked out the life. Then if the wind droveyou south, you smelled smoke and at night saw flames, and if you couldnot get the ship about-- In mid-afternoon I left the sands and took the road to La Rabida. Bythe walled vineyard that climbs the hill I was met by three mountedmen coming from the monastery. The first was Don Juan de Penelosa, thesecond was the Prior of La Rabida, the third was the Admiral of theOcean-Sea. Fray Juan Perez first saw me clearly, drawn up by wall. He had beenquoting Latin and he broke at _Dominus et magister_. The Admiralturned gray eyes upon me. I saw his mind working. He said, "The road toCordova--Welcome, Juan Lepe!" "Welcome, Excellency!" I gave him the name, seeing him for a moment somewhat whimsically asViceroy of conquered great India of the elephants and the temples filledwith bells. His face lighted. He looked at me, and I knew again that heliked me. I liked him. My kinsman the Prior had started to speak to me, but then had shot alook at Juan de Penelosa and refrained. The Queen's officer spoke, "Why, here's another strong fellow, not so tall as some but powerfully knit!Are you used to the sea?" I answered that I had been upon a Marseilles bark that was wrecked offAlmeria, and that I had walked from San Lucar. He asked my name and Igave it. "Juan Lepe. " "I attach you then, Juan Lepe, for the service ofthe Queen! Behold your admiral, Don Cristoval Colon! His ships are the_Santa Maria_, the Pinta and the Nina, his destination the gloriousfinding of the Indies and Cipango where the poorest man drinks from agolden cup! Princes, I fancy, drink from hollowed emeralds! You willsail to-morrow at dawn. In which ship shall we put him, Senor?" "In the Santa Maria, " answered the Admiral. So short as that was it done! And yet--and yet--it had been doing for along time, for how long a time I have no way of measuring! Juan de Penelosa continued to speak: "Follow us into Palos whereSebastian Jaurez will give you wine and a piece of money. Thence youwill go to church where indeed we are bound, all who sail beinggathered there for general confession and absolution. This voyage beginsChristianly!" Said Fray Juan Perez, "Not to do that, Juan Lepe, were to cry aloud foranother shipwreck!" He used the tone of priest, thrusting in speech as priests often do, where there is no especial need of speech. But I understood that thatwas a mask, and could read kinsmanly anxiety in a good man's heart. Isaid, "I will find Sebastian Jaurez, and I will go to church, Senors. Aship is a ship, and a voyage a voyage!" "This, Juan Lepe, " said the Admiral in that peculiarly warm andthrilling voice of his, "is such a voyage as you have never been!" I made reply, "So be it! I would have every voyage greater than thelast. " And as they put their steeds into motion, walked behind themdownhill and over sandy ways into Palos. There I found Sebastian Jaurezwho signed me in. I put into my pocket the coin he gave me and drankwith him a stoup of wine, and then I went to church. It was a great shadowy church and I found it full. Jaurez piloted me towhere just under pulpit were ranged my fellow mariners, a hundred plainsailormen, no great number with which to widen the world! A score or soof better station were grouped at the head of these, and in front of allstood Christopherus Columbus. I saw again Martin Alonso Pinzon who hadentered the Prior's room at La Rabida, and with him his two brothersFrancisco and Vicente. Martin Pinzon would be captain of the _Pinta_and Vicente of the Nina. And there were Roderigo Sanchez of Segovia, Inspector-General of Armament, and Diego de Arana, chief alguazil of theexpedition, and Roderigo de Escobedo, royal notary, and with these threeor four young men of birth, adventuring for India now that the war withthe Moor was done. And there were two physicians, Garcia Fernandez andBerardino Nunez. And there was the Franciscan, Fray Ignatio, who wouldconvert the heathen and preach before the Great Khan. The Admiral of Ocean-Sea stood a taller man than any there, tall, muscular, a great figure. He was richly dressed, for as soon as he couldhe dressed richly. A shaft of light struck his brow and made his hairall glowing silver. His face was lifted. The air about him to my eyesswam and quivered and was faintly colored. Fray Juan Perez preached the sermon and he used great earnestness andnow and again his voice broke. He talked of God's gain that we wentforth upon, reaping in a field set us. One thing came forth here that Ihad not before heard. "And the unthinkable wealth that surely shall be found and gained, for these countries to which you sail have eight-tenths of the world'sriches, shall put Castile and Leon where of old stood Pagan Rome, andshall make, God willing, of this very Palos a new Genoa or Venice! Andthis man, your Admiral, how hath he proposed to the Sovereigns to usefirst fruits? Why, friends, by taking finally and forever from Mahound, and for Holy Church and her servant the Spains, the Holy Sepulchre!" In the end, we the going forth, kneeling, made general confession andthe priest's hands in the dusk above absolved us. There was solemnityand there was tenderness. A hundred and twenty, we came forth fromchurch, and around us flowed the hundreds of Palos, men and women andchildren. All was red under a red sunset, the boats waiting to take usout to the _Santa Maria_, the Pinta and the Nina. We marched to waterside. Priests and friars moved with us, singingloudly the hymn to the Virgin, Lady of all seamen. Great tears ran downFray Juan Perez's checks. It was a red sunset and the west into which wewere going looked indeed blood-flecked. Don Juan de Penelosa, harking uson, had an inspiration. "You see the rubies of Cipango!" It is not alone "great" men who bring about things in this world. All ofus are in a measure great, as all are on the way to greater greatness. Sailors are brave and hardy men; that is said when it is said that theyare sailors. In many hearts hung dread of this voyage and rebellionagainst being forced to it. But they had not to be lashed to the boats;they went with sailors' careless air and dignity. By far the most wentthus. Even Fernando ceased his wailing and embarked. The red light, orfor danger or for rubies in which still might be danger, washed us all, washed the town, the folk and the sandy shore, and the boats that wouldtake us out to the ships, small in themselves, and small by distance, riding there in the river-mouth like toys that have been made forchildren. The hundred and twenty entered the boats. It was like a little fishingfleet going out together. The rowers bent to the oars, a strip of waterwidened between us and Spain. Loud chanted the friars, but over theirvoices rose the crying of farewell, now deep, now shrill. "_Adios!_"The sailors cried back, "Adios! Adios!" From the land it must have hada thin sound like ghosts wailing from the edge of the world. That, thesailors held and Palos held, was where the ships were going, over theedge of the world. It was the third day of August, in the year fourteenhundred and ninety-two. CHAPTER X PALOS vanished, we lost the headland of La Rabida, a haze hid Spain. By nightfall all was behind us. We were set forth from native land, set forth from Europe, set forth from Christendom, set forth from seacompany and sailors' cheer of other ships. That last would not be whollytrue until we were gone from the Canaries, toward which islands, runningsouth, we now were headed. We might hail some Spanish ship going to, coming from, Grand Canary. We might indeed, before we reached theseislands, see other sails, for a rumor ran that the King of Portugal wassending ships to intercept us, sink us and none ever be the wiser, itnot being to his interest that Spain should make discoveries! Pedro itwas who put this into my ear as we hauled at the same rope. I laughed. "Here beginneth the marvelous tale of this voyage! If all happens thatall say may happen, not the Pope's library can hold the books!" The _Santa Maria_ was a good enough ship, though fifty men crowded it. It was new and clean, a fair sailer, though not so swift as the Pinta. We mariners settled ourselves in waist and forecastle. The Admiral, Juande la Cosa, the master, Roderigo Sanchez, Diego de Arana and Roderigo deEscobedo, Pedro Gutierrez, a private adventurer, the physician BernardoNunez and Fray Ignatio had great cabin and certain small sleeping cabinsand poop deck. In the forecastle almost all knew one another; all raninto kinships near or remote. But the turn of character made the realgrouping. Pedro had his cluster and Sancho had his, and between swayednow to the one and now to the other a large group. Fernando, I feelgladness in saying, had with him but two or three. And aside stoodvariations, individuals. Beltran the cook was such an one, a bold, mirthful, likable man. We had several dry thinkers, and a braggart andtwo or three who proved miserably villainous. We had weathercocks andmen who faced forward, no matter what the wind that blew. The Admiral knew well that he must have, if he could, a ship patient, contented and hopeful. I bear him witness that he spared no pains. We had aboard trumpet and drum and viol, and he would have frequentmusic. Each day toward evening each man was given a cup of wine. Andbefore sunset all were gathered for vesper service, and we sang _SalveRegina_. At night the great familiar stars shone out above us. Second day passed much like first, --light fickle wind, flapping sails, smooth sea, cloudless sky. To-day beheld sea life after shore grownhabitual. We might have sailed from Marseilles or Genoa and been sailingfor a month. If this were all, then no more terror from the Sea ofDarkness than from our own so well-known sea! But Fernando said, "It isafter the Canaries! We know well enough it is not so bad this side ofthem. Why do they call them Dog Islands?" "Perhaps they found dogs there. " "No, but that they give warning like watchdogs! 'If you go any furtherit shall be to your woe!'" "Aye, aye! Have you heard tell of the spouting mountain?" This night the wind came up and by morning was blowing stiffly, urgingus landward as though back to Spain. The sky became leaden, with a greatstormy aspect. The waves mounted, the lookout cried that the _Pinta_was showing signals of distress. By now all had shortened sail, but thePinta was taking in everything and presently lay under bare poles. TheSanta Maria worked toward her until we were close by. They shoutedand we back to them. It was her rudder that was unshipped and injured. Captain Martin Pinzon shouted that he would overcome it, binding itsomehow in place, and would overtake us, the _Pinta_ being faster sailerthan the Santa Maria or the Nina. But the Admiral would not agree, andwe took in all sail and lay tossed by a rough sea until afternoonwhen the Pinta signaled that the rudder was hung. But by now the skystretched straight lead, and the water ran white-capped. We made no waytill morning, when without a drop of rain all the cloud roof was drivenlandward and there sprang out a sky so blue that the heart laughed forjoy. The violent wind sank, then veered and blowing moderately carriedus again southward. All the white sails, white and new, were flung out, and we raced over a rich, green plain. That lasted through most of theday, but an hour before sunset the _Pinta_ again signaled trouble. Therudder was once more worse than useless. Again it was mended. But when the next morning it happened the thirdtime and a kind of wailing grumble went through the Santa Maria, therecame pronouncement from the Admiral. "The Canaries lie straight ahead. In two days we shall sight them. Very good! we shall rest there and makea new rudder for the _Pinta_. The Nina will do better with square sailsand we can change these. Fresh meat and water and some rambling ashore!" Beltran the cook had been to the Canaries, driven there by a perversewind twenty years ago when he was boatswain upon a big carrack. He saidit was no great way and one or two agreed with him, but others declinedto believe the Admiral when he said that in two days we should beholdthe volcano. Some were found to clamor that the wind had driven us outof all reckoning! We might never find the Canaries and then what wouldthe _Pinta_ do? Whereas, if we all turned back to Palos-- "If--if!" answered Beltran the cook, who at first seemed strangely andhumorously there as cook until one found that he had an injured legand could not climb mast nor manage sail. "'If' is a seaman without aship!--He's a famous navigator. " "Martin Pinzon?" "Him too. But I meant our Admiral. " "He hasn't had a ship for years!" "He was of the best when he had one! I've heard old Captain Ruy tell--" "Maybe he wasn't crazy in those days, but he's crazy now!" That was Fernando. I think it was from him that certain of the crewtook the word "crazy. " They used it until one would think that for purevariety's sake they would find another! The sixth day from Palos there lifted from sea the peak of Teneriffe. This day, passing on some errand the open door of the great cabin, Isaw the Admiral seated at the table. Looking up, he saw me, gazed aninstant, then lifted his voice. "Come in here!" He sat with a great chart spread upon the table before him. Besideit the log lay open, and he had under his hand a book in which he waswriting. Door framed blue sky and sea, a pleasant wind was singing ina pleasant warmth, the great cabin which, with the rest of the ship, hemade to be kept very clean, was awash with light and fineness of air. "Would you like to look at the chart?" he asked, and I came and lookedover his shoulder. "I made it, " he said. "There is nothing in the world more useful thanknowing how to make maps and charts! While I waited for Kings to make uptheir minds I earned my living so. " I glanced at the log and he pushedit to me so that I might see. "Every day from Palos out. " His strongfingers touched the other book. "My journal that I keep for myself andthe Queen and King Ferdinand and indeed for the world. " He turned theleaves. The bulk of them were blank, but in the front showed closelycovered pages, the writing not large but clear and strong. "This voyage, you see, changeth our world! Once in Venice I heard a scholar learnedin the Greek tell of an old voyage of a ship called _Argo_, whence itscaptain and crew were named Argonauts, and he said that it was of allvoyages most famous with the ancients. This is like that, but probablygreater. " He turned the pages. "I shall do it in the manner of Caesarhis Commentaries. " He knew himself, I thought, for as great a man as Caesar. All said, hisbook might be as prized in some unentered future. He did not move wheretime is as a film, but where time is deep, a thousand years as a day. Hecould not see there in detail any more than we could see tree and housein those Canaries upon which we were bearing down. I said, "Now that printing is general, it may go into far lands and intomultitude of hands and heads. Many a voyager to come may study it. " He drew deep breath. "It is the very truth! Prince Henry the Navigator. Christopherus Columbus the Navigator, and greater than the first--" Sun shone, wind sang, blue sea danced beyond the door. Came from deckRoderigo Sanchez and Diego de Arana. The Admiral made me a gesture ofdismissal. The Canaries and we drew together. Great bands of cloud hid much of thehigher land, but the volcano top came clear above cloud, standing bareand solemn against blue heaven. Leaving upon our right Grand Canary westood for the island of Gomera. Here we found deep, clear water closeto shore, a narrow strand, a small Spanish fort and beginnings of avillage, and inland, up ravines clad with a strange, leafless bush, plentiful huts of the conquered Guanches. Our three ships came toanchor, and the Admiral went ashore, the captains of the _Pinta_ and theNina following. Juan Lepe was among the rowers. The Spanish commandant came down to beach with an armed escort. TheAdmiral, walking alone, met him between sea and bright green trees, andhere stood the two and conversed while we watched. The Admiral showedhim letters of credence. The commandant took and read, handed themback with a bow, and coming to water edge had presented to him the twocaptains, Martin and Vicente Pinzon. He proved a cheery old veteran ofold wars, relieved that we were not Portuguese nor pirates and happy tohave late news from Spain. It seemed that he had learned from a supplyship in June that the expedition was afoot. The _Santa Maria_ and the Nina rode close in shore. Captain MartinPinzon beached the Pinta and unshipped the hurt and useless rudder. Workupon a new one began at once. The Admiral, the two captains and thoseof rank upon the ships supped with the commandant at his quite goodlyhouse, and the next day he and his officers dined aboard the SantaMaria. The Admiral liked him much for he was more than respectful towardthis voyage. A year before, bathing one day in the surf, there had comefloating to his hand a great gourd. None such grew anywhere in theseislands, and the wind for days had come steadily from the west. Thegourd had a kind of pattern cut around it. He showed it to the Admiraland afterwards gave it to him. The latter caused it to pass from hand tohand among the seamen. I had it in my hands and truly saw no reason whyit might not have been cut by some native of the West, and, carried awayby the tide or dropped perchance from a boat, have at last, after longtime, come into hands not Indian. Asia tossing unthinkingly a ball whichEurope caught. The _Pinta_ proved in worse plight than was at first thought. The Ninaalso found this or that to do besides squaring her Levant sails. Westayed in Gomera almost three weeks. The place was novel, the day's tasknot hard, the Admiral and his captains complaisant. We had leisure andisland company. To many it was happiness enough. While we stopped atGornera we were at least not drifting upon lodestone, equator fire andchaos! Here on Gomera might be studied the three Pinzon brothers. Vicente wasa good, courageous captain, Francisco a good pilot, and a courageous, seldom-speaking man. But Martin Alonso, the eldest, was the prime moverin all their affairs. He was skillful navigator like his brothers andcourageous like them, but not silent like Francisco, and ambitious farabove either. He would have said perhaps that had he not been so, beenboth ambitious and shrewd, the Pinzons would never have become principalship-owning, trading and maritime family of Palos and three leaguesaround. He, too, had family fortunes and aggrandizement at heart, thoughhardly on the grand, imperial scale of the Admiral. He had much manlybeauty, daring and strength. His two brothers worshipped him, and inmost places and moments his crew would follow him with a cheer. TheAdmiral was bound to him, not only in that he had volunteered and madeothers to go willingly, but that he had put in his ship, the _Nina_, andhad furnished Master Christopherus with monies. That eighth of the costof the expedition, whence else could it come? If it tied Martin Pinzonto the Admiral, seeing that only through success could those monies berepaid, it likewise made him feel that he, too, had authority, was atliberty to advise, and at need to become critical. But the Admiral had the great man's mark. He could acknowledge serviceand be quite simply and deeply grateful for it. He was grateful toMartin Pinzon who had aided him from his first coming to Palos, and alsoI think he loved the younger man's great blond strength and beauty. Hehad all of Italy's quickness to beauty, be it of land or sea, forest, flower, animal or man. But now and again, even so early as this, he mustput out hand to check Pinzon's impetuous advice. His brows drew togetherabove gray eyes and eagle nose. But for the most part, on Gomera, theywere very friendly, and it was a sight to see Admiral and captains andall the privileged of the expedition sit at wine with the commandant. Juan Lepe had no quarrel with any of them. Jayme de Marchena swept thisvoyage into the Great Voyage. The _Pinta_ was nearly ready when there arrived a small ship from Ferrobringing news that three large Portuguese ships had sailed by thatisland. Said the commandant, "Spain and Portugal are at peace. Theywould not dare to try to oust us!" He came to waterside to talk to theAdmiral. "Not to fight you, " said the Admiral, "but me! King John wishesto keep India, Cipango and Cathay still veiled. So he will get timein which to have from the Holy Father another bull that will place thePortuguese line west and west until he hath the whole!" He raised hishand and let it fall. "I cannot sail to-morrow, but I will sail the dayafter!" We were put to hard labor for the rest of that day, and through much ofthe moonlit night. By early morning again we labored. At mid-afternoonall was done. The _Pinta_, right from stem to stern, rode the bluewater; the Nina had her great square sails. The Guanches stored for usfresh provisions and rolled down and into ship our water casks. Therewas a great moon, and we would stand off in the night. Nothing more hadbeen seen of the Portuguese ships, but we were ready to go and go weshould. All being done, and the sun two hours high, we mariners hadleave to rest ashore under trees who might not for very long again seeland or trees. There was a grove that led to a stream and the waterfall where we hadfilled the casks. I walked through this alone. The place lay utterlystill save for the murmuring of the water and the singing of a smallyellowish bird that abounds in these islands. At the end of an aisle oftrees shone the sea, blue and calm as a sapphire of heaven. I lay downupon the earth by the water. Finding of India and rounding the earth! We seemed poor, weak men, butthe thing was great, and I suppose the doers of a great thing aregreat. East--west! Going west and yet east. --The Jew in me had comefrom Palestine, and to Palestine perhaps from Arabia, and to Arabia--whoknew?--perhaps from that India! And much of the Spaniard had come fromCarthage and from Phoenicia, old Tyre and Sidon, and Tyre and Sidonagain from the east. From the east and to the east again. All our Agethat with all lacks was yet a stirring one with a sense of dawn andsunrise and distant trumpets, now was going east, was going Home, goingeast by the west road. West is home and East is home, and North andSouth. Knowledge extendeth and the world above is fed. The sun made a lane of scarlet and gold across Ocean-Sea. I wonderedwhat temples, what towns, what spice ships at strange wharfs might lieunder it afar. I wondered if there did dwell Prester John and if hewould step down to give us welcome. The torrent of event strikes usday and night, all the hours, all the moments. Who can tell withdistinctness color and shape in that descending stream? CHAPTER XI AN hour after moonrise we were gone from Gomera. At first a light windfilled the sails, but when the round moon went down in the west andthe sun rose, there was Teneriffe still at hand, and the sea glassy. It rested like a mirror all that day, and the sails hung empty and thebanner at maintop but a moveless wisp of cloth. In the night arose acontrary wind, and another red dawn showed us Teneriffe still. The winddropping like a shot, we hung off Ferro, fixed in blue glass. Watch waskept for the Portuguese, but they also would be rooted to sea bottom. The third morning up whistled the wind, blowing from Africa and fillingevery sail. Palos to the Canaries, we had sailed south. Now for long, long daysthe sun rose right aft, and when it set dyed with red brow and eyesand cheek and breast of the carved woman at our prow. She wore a greatcrown, and she looked ever with wide eyes upon the west that we chased. Straight west over Ocean-Sea, the first men, the first ships! If everthere had been others, our world knew it not. The Canaries sank into theeast. Turn on heel around one's self, and mark never a start of land tobreak the rim of the vast sea bowl! Never a sail save those above us ofthe _Santa Maria_, or starboard or larboard, the Pinta and the Nina. Theloneliness was vast and utter. We might fail here, sink here, die here, and indeed fail and sink and die alone! Two seamen lay sick in their beds, and the third day from Gomera theSanta Maria's physician, Bernardo Nunez, was seized with the samemalady. At first Fray Ignatio tried to take his place, but here the monklacked knowledge. One of the sailors died, a ship boy sickened, and thephysician's fever increased upon him. Diego de Arana began to fail. Theship's master came at supper time and looked us over. "Is there any herewho has any leechcraft?" Beltran the cook said, "I can set a bone and wash a wound; but it endsthere!" Cried Fernando from his corner. "Is the plague among us!" The masterturned on him. "Here and now, I say five lashes for the man who saysthat word again! Has any man here sense about a plain fever?" None else speaking, I said that long ago I had studied for a time witha leech, and that I was somewhat used to care of the sick. "Then youare my man!" quoth the master, and forthwith took me to the Admiral. Ibecame Juan Lepe, the physician. It was, I held, a fever received while wandering through the ravines andwoods of Gomera. Master Bernardo had in his cabin drugs and tinctures, and we breathed now all the salt of Ocean-Sea, and the ship was clean. Italked to Beltran the cook about diet, and I chose Sancho and a man thatI liked, one Luis Torres, for nurses. Two others sickened this night, and one the next day, but none afterward. None died; in ten days allwere recovered. Other ailments aboard I doctored also. Don Diego deArana was subject to fits of melancholy with twitchings of the body. I had watched Isaac the Physician cure such things as this, and now Ifollowed instruction. I put my hands upon the patient and I strengthenedhis will with mine, sending into him desire for health and perception ofhealth. His inner man caught tune. The melancholy left him and did notreturn. Master Bernardo threw off the fever, sat up and moved about. Buthe was still weak, and still I tended the others for him. The _Pinta_ had signaled four men ill. But Garcia Fernandez, the Palosphysician, was there with Martin Pinzon, and the sick recovered. TheNina had no doctor and now she came near to the Santa Maria and sent aboat. She had five sick men and would borrow Bernardo Nunez. The Admiral spoke with Nunez, now nearly well. Then the physician made abundle of drugs and medicaments, said farewell to all and kindly enoughto me, and rowed away to the _Nina_. He was a friend of the Pinzons, andabove the vanity of the greater ship. The sick upon the Nina prosperedunder him. But Juan Lepe was taken from the forecastle, and slept where Nunez hadslept, and had his place at the table in the great cabin. He turned fromthe sailor Juan Lepe to the physician Juan Lepe, becoming "Doctor" and"Senor. " The wheel turns and a man's past makes his present. A few days from Gomera, an hour after sunset, the night was torn by thehugest, flaming, falling star that any of us had ever seen. The massdrove down the lower skirt of the sky, leaving behind it a wake of fire. It plunged into the sea. There is no sailor but knows shooting stars. But this was a hugely great one, and Ocean-Sea very lonely, and to mostthere our errand a spectral and frightening one. It needed both theAdmiral and Fray Ignatio to quell the panic. The next day a great bird like a crane passed over the _Santa Maria_. Itcame from Africa, behind us. But it spoke of land, and the sailors gazedwistfully. This day I entered the great cabin when none was there but the Admiral, and again he sat at table with his charts and his books. He asked of thesick and I answered. Again he sat looking through open door and windowat blue water, a great figure of a man with a great head and face andearly-silvered hair. "Do you know aught, " he asked, "of astrology?" I answered that I knew a little of the surface of it. "I have a sense, " he said, "that our stars are akin, yours and mine. Ifelt it the day Granada fell, and I felt it on Cordova road, and againthat day below La Rabida when we turned the corner and the bells rangand you stood beside the vineyard wall. Should I not have learned inmore than fifty years to know a man? The stars are akin that will endurefor vision's sake. " I said, "I believe that, my Admiral. " He sat in silence for a moment, then drew the log between us and turnedseveral pages so that I might see the reckoning. "We have come well, " Isaid. "Yet with so fair a wind, I should have thought--" He turned the leaves till he rested at one covered with other figures. "Here it is as it truly is, and where we truly are! We have oversailedall that the first show, and so many leagues besides. " "Two records, true and untrue! Why do you do it so?" "I have told them that after seven hundred leagues we should find land. Add fifty more for our general imperfection. But it may be wider thanI think. We may not come even to some fringing island in eight hundredleagues, no, nor in more than that! If it be a thousand, if it be twothousand, on I go! But after the seven hundred is passed, it will behard to keep them in hand. So, though we are covering more, I let themthink we are covering only this. " I could but laugh. Two reckonings! After all, he was not Italian fornothing! "The master knows, " he said, "and also Diego de Arana. But at least oneother should know. Two might drown or perish from sickness. I myselfmight fall sick and die, though I will not believe it!" He paused amoment, then said, looking directly at me, "I need one in whom I canutterly confide. I should have had with me my brother Bartholomew. Buthe is in England. A man going to seek a Crown jewel for all men shouldhave with him son or brother. Diego de Arana is a kinsman of one whomI love, and he partly believes. But Roderigo Sanchez and the othersbelieve hardly at all. There is Fray Ignatio. He believes, and I confessmy sins to him. But he thinks only of penitents, and this matter needsmind, not heart alone. Because of that sense of the stars, I tell youthese things. " The next day it came to me that in that Journal which he meant to makelike Caesar's Commentaries, he might put down the change in the _SantaMaria's_ physicians and set my name there too often. I watched my chanceand finding it, asked that he name me not in that book. His gray eyesrested upon me; he demanded the reason for that. I said that in Spain Iwas in danger, and that Juan Lepe was not my name. More than that I didnot wish to say, and perchance it were wiser for him not to know. But Iwould not that the powerful should mark me in his Journal or elsewhere! Usually his eyes were wide and filled with light as though it were sentinto them from the vast lands that he continuously saw. But he could beimmediate captain and commander of things and of men, and when that wasso, the light drew into a point, and he became eagle that sees throughthe wave the fish. Had he been the seer alone, truly he might have beenthe seer of what was to be discovered and might have set others upon thepath. But he would not have sailed on the _Santa Maria_! In his many years at sea he must many times have met men who had put tosea out of fear of land. He would have sailed with many whose names, heknew, were not those given them at birth. He must have learned to takereasons for granted and to go on--where he wished to go on. So we gazedat each other. "I had written down, " he said, "that you greatly helped the sick, andupon Bernardo Nunez's going to the _Nina_, became our physician. But Iwill write no more of you, and that written will pass in the flood ofthings to come. " After a moment, he ended with deliberation, "I know mystar to be a great star, burning long and now with a mounting flame. Ifyours is in any wise its kin, then there needs must be histories. " CHAPTER XII IT was a strange thing how utterly favoring now was the wind! It blewwith a great steady push always from the east, and always we ran beforeit into the west. Day after day we experienced this warm and steadfastdriving; day after day we never shifted sail. The rigging sang asteady song, day and night. The crowned woman, our figurehead, ran, light-footed, over a green and blue plain, and where the plain ended noman might know! "Perhaps it does not end!" said the mariners. Of the hidalgos aboard I like best Diego de Arana who had cast off hismelancholy. He was a man of sense, candid and brave. Roderigo Sanchezsat and moved a dull, good man. Roderigo de Escobedo had courage, buthe was factious, would take sides against his shadow if none other werethere. Pedro Gutierrez had been a courtier, and had the vices of thatlife, together with a daredevil recklessness and a kind of wild wit. I had liking and admiration for Fray Ignatio, but careful indeed was Iwhen I spoke with him! The wind blew unchanging, the stark blue shield of sea, a water-world, must be taken in the whole, for there was no contrasting point in it tocatch the eye. Sancho, forward, in a high sweet voice like a jongleur'svoice, was singing to the men an endless ballad. Upon the poop deckEscobedo and Gutierrez, having diced themselves to an even wealth orpoverty, turned to further examination of the Admiral's ways. Endlesslythey made him and his views subject of talk. Roderigo Sanchez listenedwith a face like an owl, Diego de Arana with some irony about his lips. I came and stood beside the latter. They were upon the beggary of Christopherus Columbus. "How did the Priorof La Rabida--?" "I'll tell you, for I heard it. One evening at vesper bell comes ourAdmiral--no less a man!--to Priory gate with a young boy in his hand. Not Fernando his love-child, but Diego the elder, who was born inLisbon. All dusty with the road, like any beggar you see, and not muchbetter clad, foot-sore and begging bread for himself and the boy. Andbecause of his white hair, and because he carried himself in that absurdway that makes the undiscerning cry, 'Ah, my lord king in disguise!'the porter must have him in, and by and by comes the prior and stands totalk with him, 'From where?' 'From Cordova. ' 'Whither?' 'To Portugal. ''For why?' 'To speak again with King John!' 'Are you in the habit ofspeaking with kings?' 'Aye, I am!' 'About what, may I ask?' 'Aboutthe finding of India by way of Ocean-Sea, the possession of idolatrouscountries and the great wealth thereof, and the taking of Christ to theheathen who else are lost!'" "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" This was Escobedo. "The prior thinks, 'This is an interesting madman. ' And being acharitable good man and lacking entertainment that evening, he bringsthe beggar in to supper and sits by him. " Roderigo Sanchez opened his mouth. "All Andalusia knows Fray Juan Perezis a kind of visionary!" "Aye, like to like! 'Have you been to our Queen and the King?' 'Aye, Ihave!' saith the beggar, 'but they are warring with the Moors and willpull Granada down and do not see the greater glory!'" All laughed at that, and indeed Gutierrez could mimic to perfection. Wegot, full measure, the beggar's loftiness. "So the siren sings and the prior leaps to meet her, or tarantula stingshim and he dances! 'I am growing mad too, ' thinks Fray Juan Perez, andbegins presently to tell that last week he dreamed of Prester John. Theend is that he and the beggar talk till midnight and the next morningthey talk again, and the prior sends for his friends Captain MartinAlonzo Pinzon and the physician Garcia Fernandez. The beggar gains themall!" "Do you think a beggar can do that?" I said. "Only a giver can do that. " Pedro Gutierrez turned black eyes upon Juan Lepe, whom he resented thereon the poop deck. "How could you have learned so much, Doctor, while youwere making sail and washing ship?" He was my younger in every way, andI answered equably, "I learned in the same way that the Admiral learnedwhile he begged. " "Touched!" said Diego de Arana. "So that is the way the prior came intothe business?" "He enters with such vigor, " said Gutierrez, "that what does he do butwrite an impassioned letter to the Queen, having long ago, for a time, been her confessor? What he tells her, God knows, but it seems that itchanges the world! She answers that for herself she hath grieved forMaster Columbus's departure from the court and the realm, and that ifhe will turn and come to Santa Fe, his propositions shall at last bethoroughly weighed. Letter finds the beggar with his boy honored guestof La Rabida, touching heads with Martin Pinzon over maps and chartsand the 'Book of Travels' of Messer Marco Polo. There is great joy! Thebeggar hath the prior's own mule and his son a jennet, and here we goto Santa Fe! That was last year. Now the boy that whimpered for breadat convent gate is Don Diego Colon, page to Prince Juan, and the Viceroysails on the _Santa Maria_ for the countries he will administer!" Gutierrez shook the dice in the box. "Oh, Queen Luck, that I have servedfor so long! Why do you not make me viceroy?" Said Escobedo, "Viceroy of the continent of water and Admiral of seaweedand fishes!" Diego de Arana took that up. "We are obliged to find something! Nosensible man can think like some of those forward that this goes onforever and we shall sail till the wood rots and sails grow ragged andwind carries away their shreds or they fall into dust!" "Who knows anything of River-Ocean? We may not find the western shore, if there be such a thing, for a year! By that time storm will sink usten times over, or plague will take us--" "There's not needed plague nor storm. Just say, food won't last, andwater is already half gone!" "That's the undeniable truth, " quoth Roderigo Sanchez, and looked with aperturbed face at the too-smooth sea. Smooth blue sea continued, wind continued, pushing like a great, warmhand, east to west. The Admiral spent hours alone in his sleeping cabin. There were men who said that he studied there a great book of magic. Hehad often a book in his hand, it is true, but Juan Lepe the physicianknew what he strove to keep from others, that the gout that at timesthreatened crippling was upon him and was easier to bear lying down. Sunset, vesper prayer and _Salve Regina_. As the strains died, therebecame evident a lingering on the part of the seamen. The master spoketo the Admiral. "They've found out about the needle, sir! Perhaps you'dbetter hear them and answer them. " Almost every day he heard them and answered them. To make his seamen, however they groaned and grumbled and plotted, yet abide him and hispurpose was a day-after-day arising task! "Now, " he said equably, in thetone almost of a father, "What is it to-day, men?" The throng worked and put forward a spokesman, who looked from theAdmiral to the clear north. "It is the star, sir! The needle no longerpoints to it! We thought you might explain to us unlearned--What wethink is that distance is going to widen and widen! What's to keepneedle from swinging right south? Then will we never get home to Palosand our wives and children--never and never and never!" Said the Admiral, "It will not change further, or if it does a verylittle further!" In his most decisive, most convincing voice heexplained why the needle no longer pointed precisely to the star. Thedeviation marked and allowed for, it was near enough for practicalpurposes, and the reasons for the wandering-- I do not know if the wisdom of our descendants will confirm hisexplanation. It is so often to explain the explanation! But one as wellas another might do here. What the _Santa Maria_ wanted was reassurance, general and large, stretching from the Canaries to India and Cathay andback again. He knew that, and after no great time spent with compassneedle and circularly traveling polar star, he began to talk gold andestate, and the pearls and silk and spices they would surely take forgifts to their family and neighbors, Palos or Huelva or Fishertown! It was truly the hope that upheld many on a voyage that they chose tothink a witches' one. He talked now out of Marco Polo and he clad whatthat traveler had said in more gorgeous attire. He meant nothing false;his exalted imagination saw it so. He was painter of great pageants, heightening and remodeling, deepening and purifying colors, makinghumdrum and workaday over to his heart's desire. The Venetian in hisbook, and other travelers in their books, had related wonders enough. These grew with him, it might be said--and indeed in his lifetime wasoften said--into wonders without a foot upon earth. But if one took asfigures and symbols his gold roofs and platters, temples and gardens, every man a merchant in silks and spices, strange fruit-dropping treesand pearls in carcanets, the Grand Khan and Prester John--who could saythat in the long, patient life of Time the Admiral was over-esteeming?The pity of it was that most here could not live in great lengths oftime. They wanted riches now, now! And they wanted only one kind ofriches; here and now, or at the most in another month, in the hands andlaps of Pedro and Fernando and Diego. CHAPTER XIII THERE grew at times an excited feeling that he was a prophet, and thatthere were fabulously great things before us. As I doctored some smallill one day in the forecastle, a great fellow named Francisco fromHuelva would tell me his dream of the night before. He had alreadytold it, it seemed, to all who would listen, and now again he hadconsiderable audience, crowding at the door. He said that he dreamedhe was in Cipango. At first he thought it was heaven, but when he sawgolden roofs he knew it must be Cipango, for in heaven where itnever rained and there were no nights, we shouldn't need roofs. Oneinterrupted, "We'd need them to keep the flying angels from looking in!" "It was Cipango, " persisted Francisco, "for the Emperor himself cameand gave me a rope of pearls. There were five thousand of them, and eachwould buy a house or a fine horse or a suit of velvet. And the Emperortook me by the hand, and he said, 'Dear Brother--' You might havethought I was a king--and by the mass, I was a king! I felt it rightaway! And then he took me into a garden, and there were three beautifulwomen, and one of them would push me to the other, and that one to thethird, and that to the first again, as though they were playing ball, and they all laughed, and I laughed. Then there came a great person withfive crowns on his head, and all the light blazed up gold and blue, andsomebody said, 'It's Prester John'!" His dream kept a two-days' serenity upon the ship. It came to the earof the Admiral, who said, "'In dreams will I instruct thee. '--I have haddreams far statelier than his. " Pedro Gutierrez too began to dream, --fantastic things which he told withan idle gusto. They were of wine and gold and women, though often thesewere to be guessed through strange, jumbled masks and phantasies. "Thoseare ill dreams, " said the Admiral. "Dream straight and high!" FrayIgnatio, too, said wisely, "It is not always God who cometh in dreams!" But the images of Gutierrez's dreams seemed to him to be seatedin Cathay and India. They bred in him belief that he was coming tohappiness by that sea road that glistered before us. He and Roderigo deEscobedo began to talk with assurance of what they should find. Havingsmall knowledge of travelers' tales they made application to the Admiralwho, nothing loth, answered them out of Marco Polo, Mandeville and Pedrode Aliaco. But the ardor of his mind was such that he outwent his authors. Wherethe Venetian said "gold" the Genoese said "Much gold. " Where the one sawpowerful peoples with their own customs, courts, armies, temples, shipsand trade, the other gave to these an unearthly tinge of splendor. Often as he sat in cabin or on deck, or rising paced to and fro, we wholistened to his account, listened to poet and enthusiast speakingof earths to come. Besides books like those of Marco Polo and JohnMandeville and the Bishop of Cambrai he had studied philosophers andthe ancients and Scripture and the Fathers. He spoke unwaveringly ofprophecies, explicit and many, of his voyage, and the rounding out ofearth by him, Christopherus Columbus. More than once or twice, inthe great cabin, beneath the swinging lantern, he repeated to ussuch passages, his voice making great poetry of old words. "Averroessaith--Albertus Magnus saith--Aristotle saith--Seneca saith--SaintAugustine saith--Esdras in his fourth book saith--" Salt air sweepingthrough seemed to fall into a deep, musical beat and rhythm. "Afterthe council at Salamanca when great churchmen cried Irreligion and evenHeresy upon me, I searched all Scripture and drew testimony together. In fifty, yea, in a hundred places it is plain! King David saith--jobsaith--Moses saith--Thus it reads in Genesis--" Diego de Arana smote the table with his hand. "I am yours, senor, tofind for the Lord!" Fray Ignatio lifted dark eyes. "I well believe thatnothing happens but what is chosen! I will tell you that in my cell atLa Rabida I heard a cry, 'Come over, Ignatio the Franciscan!'" And I, listening, thought, "Not perhaps that ancient spiritual singingof spiritual things! But in truth, yes, it is chosen. Did not the Wholeof Me that I can so dimly feel set my foot upon this ship?" And goingout on deck before I slept, I looked at the stars and thought that wewere like the infant in the womb that knows not how nor where it iscarried. We might be four hundred leagues from Spain. Still the wind drove us, still we hardly shifted canvas, still the sky spread clear, of a vastblue depth, and the blue glass plain of the sea lay beneath. It was toosmooth, the wind in our rigging too changeless of tune. At last, allwould have had variety spring. There began a veritable hunger for somechange, and it was possible to feel a faint horror. _What if this is thehorror--to go on forever and ever like this_? Then one morning when the sun rose, it lit a novel thing. Seaweed orgrass or herbage of some sort was afloat about us. Far as the eye mightreach it was like a drowned meadow, vari-colored, awash. All that day wewatched it. It came toward us from the west; we ran through it from theeast. Now it thinned away; now it thickened until it seemed that thesea was strewn with rushes like a castle floor. With oars we caught andbrought into ship wreaths of it. All night we sailed in this strangeplain. A yellow dawn showed it still on either side the _Santa Maria_, and thicker, with fewer blue sea straits and passes than on yesterday. The Pinta and the Nina stood out with a strange, enchanted look, asships crossing a plain more vast than the plain of Andalusia. Still thatfloating weed thickened. The crowned woman at our prow pushed swathes ofit to either side. Our mariners hung over rail, talking, talking. "Whatis it--and where will it end? Mayhap presently we can not plough it!" I was again and again to admire how for forty years he had storedsea-knowledge. It was not only what those gray eyes had seen, or thoserather large, well molded ears had heard, or that powerful and nervoushand had touched. But he knew how to take, right and left, knowledgethat others gathered, as he knew that others took and would take whathe gathered. He knew that knowledge flows. Now he stood and told that noless a man than Aristotle had recorded such a happening as this. Certainships of Gades--that is our Cadiz--driven by a great wind far intoRiver-Ocean, met these weeds or others like them, distant parents ofthese. They were like floating islands forever changing shape, and thoseold ships sailed among them for a while. They thought they must havebroken from sea floor and risen to surface, and currents brought othermasses from land. Tunny fish were caught among them. And that very moment, as the endless possibilities of things would haveit, one, leaning on the rail, cried out that there were tunnies. We alllooked and saw them in a clear canal between two floating masses. Itbrought the Admiral credence. "Look you all!" he said, "how most thingshave been seen before!" "But Father Aristotle's ship--Was he 'Saint' or 'Father'?" "He was a heathen--he believed in Mahound. " "No, he lived before Mahound. He was a wise man--" "But his ships turned back to Cadiz. They were afraid of thisstuff--that's the point!" "They turned back, " said the Admiral. "And the splendor and the goldwere kept for us. " A thicker carpet of the stuff brushed ship side. One of the boys cried, "Ho, there is a crab!" It sat indeed on a criss-cross of broken reeds, and it seemed to stare at us solemnly. "Do not all see that it came fromland, and land to the west?" "But it is caught here! What if we are caught here too? These weeds maystem us--turn great crab pincers and hold us till we rot!" "If--and if--and if" cried the Admiral. "For Christ, His sake, laugh atyourselves!" On, on, we went before that warm and potent wind, so steadfast thatthere must be controlling it some natural law. Ocean-Sea spread around, with that weed like a marsh at springtide. Then, suddenly, just as themurmuring faction was murmuring again, we cleared all that. Open sea, blue running ocean, endlessly endless! The too-steady sunshine vanished. There broke a cloudy dawn followed bylight rain. It ceased and the sky cleared. But in the north held a mistand a kind of semblance of far-off mountains. Startled, a man cried"Land!" but the next moment showed that it was cloud. Yet all day themist hung in this quarter. The _Pinta_ approached and signaled, andpresently over to us put her boat, in it Martin Pinzon. The Admiral methim as he came up over side and would have taken him into great cabin. But, no! Martin Pinzon always spoke out, before everybody! "Senor, thereis land yonder, under the north! Should not we change course and seewhat is there?" "It is cloud, " answered the Admiral. "Though I do not deny that such ahaze may be crying, 'Land behind!'" "Let us sail then north, and see!" But the Admiral shook his head. "No, Captain! West--west--arrowstraight!" Pinzon appeared about to say, "You are very wrong, and we should seewhat's behind that arras!" But he checked himself, standing beforeAdmiral and Don and Viceroy, and all those listening faces around. "Istill think, " he began. The other took him up, but kept considerate, almost deferring manner. "Yes, if we had time or ships to spare! But now it is, do not stray fromthe path. Sail straight west!" "We are five hundred leagues from Palos. " "Less than that, by our reckoning. The further from Palos, the nearerIndia!" "We may be passing by our salvation!" "Our salvation lies in going as we set forth to go. " He made his gestureof dismissal of that, and asked after the health of the _Pinta_. Thehealth held, but the stores were growing low. Biscuit enough, but baconalmost out, and not so many measures of beans left. Oil, too, approachedbottom of jars. The Nina was in the same case. "Food and water will last, " said the Admiral. "We have not come so farwithout safely going farther. " Martin Alonso Pinzon was the younger man and but captain of the Pinta_, while the other stood Don and Admiral, appointed by Majesty, responsibleonly to the Crown. But he had been Master Christopherus the dreamer, whowas shabbily dressed, owed money, almost begged. He owed large money nowto Martin Pinzon. But for the Pinzons, he could hardly have sailed. Heshould listen now, take good advice, that was clearly what the captainof the _Pinta thought! Undoubtedly Master Christopherus dreamed true toa certain point, but after that was not so followable! As for CristoforoColombo, Italian shipmaster, he had, it was true, old sea wisdom. ButMartin Pinzon thought Martin Pinzon was as good there!--Captain MartinAlonso said good-by with some haughtiness and went stiffly back overblue sea to the Pinta. The sun descended, the sea grew violet, all we on the _Santa Maria_gathered for vesper prayer and song. Fray Ignatio's robe and back-throwncowl burned brown against the sea and the sail. One last broad goldshaft lighted the tall Admiral, his thick white hair, his eagle nose, his strong mouth. Diego de Arana was big, alert and soldierly; RoderigoSanchez had the look of alcalde through half a lifetime. I had seenRoderigo de Escobedo's like in dark streets in France and Italy andCastile, and Pedro Gutierrez wherever was a court. Juan de la Cosa, themaster, stood a keen man, thin as a string. Out of the crowd of marinersI pick Sancho and Beltran the cook, Ruiz the pilot, William the Irishmanand Arthur the Englishman, and two or three others. And Luis Torres. The latter was a thinker, and a Jew in blood. He carried it in his face, considerably more markedly than I carried my grandmother Judith. But hisfamily had been Christian for a hundred years. Before I left forecastlefor poop I had discovered that he was learned. Why he had turned sailorI did not then know, but afterwards found that it was for disappointedlove. He knew Arabic and Hebrew, Aristotle and Averroes, and he had adry curiosity and zest for life that made for him the wonder of thisvoyage far outweigh the danger. There was a hymn that Fray Ignatio taught us and that we sang at times, beside the Latin chant. He said that a brother of his convent hadwritten it and set it to music. Thou that art above us, Around us, beneath us, Thou who art within us, Save us on this sea! Out of danger, Teach us how we may Serve thee acceptably! Teach us how we may Crown ourselves, crowning Thee! Beltran the cook's voice was the best, and after him Sancho, and then asailor with a great bass, William the Irishman. Fray Ignatio sang like agood monk, and Pedro Gutierrez like a troubadour of no great weight. The Admiral sang with a powerful and what had once been a sweet voice. Currents and eddies of sweetness marked it still. All sang and it madetogether a great and pleasurable sound, rolling over the sea to the_Pinta_ and the Nina, and so their singing, somewhat less in volume, came to us. All grew dusk, the ships were bat wings sailing low; outsprang the star to which the needle no longer pointed. The great starVenus hung in the west like the lantern of some ghostly air ship, veryvast. Thou that art above us, Around us, beneath us, Thou that art within us, Save us on this sea! CHAPTER XIV WE were a long, long way from Spain. A flight of birds went over us. They were flying too high for distinguishing, but we did not hold themto be sea birds. We sounded, but the lead touched no bottom. West andwest and west, pushed by that wind! Late September, and we had leftPalos the third of August. The wind shifted and became contrary. The sea that for so long had beenglassy smooth took on a roughness. A bird that was surely a forestbird beaten to us perched upon a stretched rope and uttered three quickcries. A boy climbed and softly took it from behind. It fluttered in theAdmiral's two hands. All came to look. Its plumage was blue, its breastreddish. We wondered, but before we could make it a cage, it stronglystrove and was gone. One flash and all the azure took it to itself. In the night the waves flattened. Rose-dawn showed smooth sea andevery sail filled again with that westward journeying wind. Yesterday'sroughness and the bird tossed aboard were as a dream. A day and a day and a day. As much Ocean-Sea as ever, and Asia a lie, and alike at this end and that of the vessel a dull despondency, andPedro Gutierrez's wit grown ugly. So naked, so lonely, so indifferentspread the Sea of Darkness! Another day and another and another. When half the ship was at the pointof mutiny signs reappeared and thickened. Birds flew over the ships;one perched beside the Admiral's banner and sang. More than that, awood dove came upon the deck and ate corn that was strewed for it. "Colombo--Colombo!" quoth the Admiral. "I, too, am 'dove. '" And heopened a window and sent forth a "dove" to find if there were land! Almost the whole ship from Jason down took these two birds for portents. Fray Ignatio lifted hands. "The Blessed Francis who knew that birds havesouls to save hath sent them!" We passed the drifting branch of a tree. It had green leaves. The sea ran extremely blue and clear, and half theship thought they smelled frankincense, brought on the winds which nowwere changeable. At evening rose a great cry of "Land!" and indeed toone side the sinking sun seemed veritable cliffs with a single mountainpeak. The Admiral, who knew more of sea and air than any two men uponthose ships, cried "Cloud--cloud!" but for a time none believed him. There sprang great commotion, the _Pinta_ too signaling. Then before oureyes came a rift in the mountain and the cliffs slipped into the sea. But now all believed in land ahead. It was as though some one had withlaughter tossed them that assurance over the horizon straight before us. Every mariner now was emulous to be the lookout, every man kept eyeson the west. Now sprang clear and real to them the royal promise of tenthousand maravedies pension to him who first sighted Cipango, Cathay orIndia. The Admiral added a prize of a green velvet doublet. We had come nigh eight hundred leagues. In the cabin, upon the table he spread Toscanelli's map, and beside it agreat one like it, of his own making, signed in the corner _Columbus deTerra Rubra_. The depiction was of a circle, and in the right oreastern side showed the coasts of Ireland and England, France, Spain andPortugal, and of Africa that portion of which anything was known. Out inOcean appeared the islands gained in and since Prince Henry's day. Theirnames were written, --Madeira, Canaria, Cape de Verde and Azores. West ofthese and filling the middle map came Ocean-Sea, an open parchmentfield save for here a picture of a great fish, and here a siren and hereTriton, and here the Island of the Seven Cities and here Saint Brandon'sIsle, and these none knew if they be real or magical! Wide middle mapand River-Ocean! The eye quitting that great void approached the left orwestern side of the circle. And now again began islands great andsmall with legends written across and around them. The great island wasCipango, and across the extent of it ran in fine lettering. "Marco Polowas here. It is the richest of the eastern lands. The houses are roofedwith gold. The people are idolaters. There are spices and pearls, nutmegs, pepper and precious stones. Very much gold so that the commonpeople use it as they wish. " We read, the Admiral seated, we, the great cabin group, standing, bending over the table. After the islands came mainland. "Cathay" ranthe writing. "Mangi. Here is the seat of the Great Khan. His city isCambalu. " South of all this ran other drawings and other legends. "Here, opposite Africa, near the equator, are islands called Manillas. Theyhave lodestone, so that no ship with iron can sail to them. Here is Javaof all the spices. Here is great India that the ancients knew. " "We are bearing toward Cipango, " said the Admiral. "I look first forsmall outward islands, where perhaps the folk are uncouth and simple, and there is little gold. " And again days passed. When many times upon the _Santa Maria_ and asoften on the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_ some one had cried "Land!" and theships been put in commotion and the land melted into air before oureyes, and another as plausible island or coast formed before us only tovanish, despair seized us again. Witchcraft and sorcery and monstrousignorance, and fooled to our deaths! "West--west--west!" till the westwas hated. The Pinzons thought we should change course. If there werelands we were leaving them in the north where hung the haze. But theMadman or the Black Magician, our Italian Admiral, would not hear goodadvice! It was Gutierrez's word, under his breath when the Admiral wasin earshot, and aloud when he was not. "Our Italian--our Italian! Whydid not Italy keep him? And Portugal neither would have him! Castile, the jade, takes him up!" Then after absence began again the signs. Flocks of birds went by us. Isaw him watching, and truly these flights did seem to come from south ofwest. On the seventh of October he altered course. We sailed southwest. This day there floated by a branch with purple berries, and we sawflying fish. Dolphins played about the ship. The very sea felt warm tothe hand, and yet was no oppression, but light and easily breathed air, fragrant and lifting the spirits. And now we saw floating something like a narrow board or a wide staff. The master ordered the boat lowered; we brought it in and it was givendripping into the Admiral's hand. "It is carved by man, " he said. "Look!" Truly it was so, rudely done with bone or flint, but carved byman with something meant for a picture of a beast and a tree. We sailed west by south this day and the next. No more man-wroughtdriftage came our way, but other signs multiplied. We saw many birds, the water was strangely warm and clear, when the wind blew toward us ithad a scent, a tone, that cried land breeze! Then came by a branch withyellow flowers, and upon one a butterfly. After this none doubted, notFernando nor any. "Gold flowers--gold flowers--gold, gold!" This night we lay by so that we should not slip past land in thedarkness. When day came there showed haze south and west. A gentle windsang in our rigging. On board the _Santa Maria_, the Pinta and theNina all watched for land. Excitement and restlessness took us all. The Admiral's eyes burned like deep gray seas. I could read in them theimages behind. _Prester John and the Release of the Sepulchre. The GrandKhan a tributary Prince. Argosies of gold, silk and spices, sailingsteady, sailing fast over a waterway unblocked by Mahound and hissoldans. All Europe burning bright, rising a rich Queen. Holy Churchwith_ _another cubit to her stature. Christopherus Columbus, theDiscoverer, the Enricher, the Deliverer! Queen Isabella, and on hercheeks a flush of gratitude; all the Spanish court bowing low. Allthe friends, the kindred, all so blessed! Sons, brothers; Genoa, andDomenico Colombo clad in velvet, dining with the Doge_. Dolphins were all about us; once there rose a cry from the mariners thatthey heard singing over the waves. We held breath and listened, but ifthey were sirens they ceased their song. But at eve, the sky pale gold, the water a sapphire field, we ourselves sang mightily our "_SalveRegina_. " The Admiral would speak to us. Now all loved him, with golden Indiarising to-morrow from the sea, with his wisdom proving itself! He hadthis eve a thrilling voice. God had been good to us; who could sayother? This very eve, at Palos, they thought of us. At Santa Maria dela Rabida, chanting vesper hymn, they prayed for us also. In Cordova theQueen prayed. In Rome, the Holy Father had us in mind. Would we lessenourselves, disappointing so many, and very God, grieving very Christ?"No! But out of this ship we shall step on this land to come, good men, true men, servants and sons of Christ in His kingdom. This night, inIndia before us, men sigh, 'We weary of our idols! Why tarrieth trueGod?' There the learned think, bending over their maps, 'Why doth notsome one put forth, bringing all the lands into one garland?' They lookto their east whence we come, and they may see in dream tonight thesethree ships!" His voice rang. "I tell you these Three Ships shall beknown forever! Your grandchildren's grandchildren shall say, 'The _SantaMaria_, the Pinta and the Nina--and one that was our ancestor sailed inthis one or in that one, to the glory and gain of the world, whereforewe still make festival of his birthday!'" At this they stirred, whether from Palos or Huelva or Fishertown. Theylooked at him now as though indeed he were great mage, or even apostle. That evening I heard Roderigo de Escobedo at an enumeration. He seemedto have committed to memory some Venice list. "Mastic, aloes, pepper, cloves, mace and cinnamon and nutmeg. Ivory and silk and most finecloth, diamonds, balasses, rubies, pearls, sapphires, jacinth andemeralds. Silver in bulk and gold common as iron with us. Gold--gold!" Pedro Gutierrez was speaking. "Gold to carry to Spain and pay my debts, with enough left to go again to court--" Said Escobedo, "The Admiral saith, 'No fraud nor violence, quarrelingnor oppression'!" Gutierrez answered: "The Admiral also thinks to pay his debts! He maythink he will be strict as the Saints, but he will not!" The Admiral was walking the deck. He stopped beside Juan Lepe who leanedupon the rail and watched a strange, glistering sea. It was that shiningstuff we see at times at night in certain weather. But to-night LuisTorres, passing, had said, "Strewn ducats!" The Admiral and Juan Lepe watched. "Never a sail!" said I. "How strangea thing is that! Great populous countries that trade among themselves, and never a sail on this sea rim!" He drummed upon the rail. "Do not think I have not thought of that! Ilooked to meet first a ship or ships. But now I think that truly theremay be many outlying islands without ships. Or there may be a warbetween princes, and all ships drawn in a fleet to north or south. One beats one's brains--and time brings the solution, and we say, 'Howsimple!'" Turning his great figure, he mounted to our castle built up from deck, whence he could see great distances. The wind had freshened; we werestanding to the west; it was behind us again and it pushed us like ashuttle in a giant's hand. The night was violet dark and warm; then atten the moon rose. Men would not sleep while the ship sailed. A greatevent was marching, marching toward us. We thought we caught the musicof it; any moment heralds, banners, might flame at end of road. We werewatching for the Marriage Procession; we were watching for Kings, forthe Pope, for I know not what! But there was certain to be largesse. I went among the mariners. Sancho met me, a young man whom then andafterwards I greatly liked. "Well, we've had luck, senor! Saint Noahhimself, say I, wasn't any luckier!" "Yes, we've done well!" Beltran the cook's great easy voice rolled in. "Fear's your onlybarnacle, say I!" Luis Torres said, "When I studied Arabic and the Hebrew, I thought itwas for the pleasure of it. They said around me, 'How you waste yourtime!' But now some about the Grand Khan should know Arabic. I will beof use. " Pedro said, "Well, it has turned out better than any reasonable mancould have expected!" and Fernando, "Yes, it has! Of course there may bewitches. I've heard it said there are great necromancers in India!" "Necromancers! That's them that show you a thing and then blow itaway--" I said, "Do you not know that all of us are the only necromancers?" "Did you see, " asked Sancho, "the glistering in the water? Are we goingto lie to after midnight? Saint George! I would like to plunge in andswim!" On poop deck, Diego de Arana called me to him. "Well, Doctor, how goesit?" He and I rested good friends. I said, "Why, it goes well. " "I was thinking, watching the moon, how little I ever dreamed, being nosea-going man, of such a thing as this. Who knows his fate? A man's astrange matter!" "He is a ballad, " I answered. "One stave leads to another and the storymounts. " "I cannot think what to-morrow may show us!" "Nor can I! But it will be important. We enter by a narrow strait greatwidths of the future. " "There will be great changes, doubtless. Our world is growing little. Everybody feels that we must push out! It isn't only Spain, but allkingdoms. " Pedro Gutierrez joined us. "You are a learned man, Doctor! What like arethe women of Cipango?" The moon, past the full yet strong enough to silver this vast shield, rose higher. The sails of the _Pinta_ and the Nina were curves ofpearl, our sails above us pale mountains. The light dimmed our lanterns. Crowned woman at our prow would be bathed in it as she ran acrossOcean-Sea. It washed our decks, pricked out our moving men. They castshadows. The master had served out an extra draught of wine. It washardly needed. We were all lifted, with visions drumming in our heads. Fray Ignatio stood against the mast, and I knew that he felt a pulpitand was making his sermon. After a time, Diego de Arana and PedroGutierrez moving away, I was alone. Mind and heart tranquilized, andinto them stepped Isabel, and she and I, hand in hand, walked fields ofthe west. The moon shone. The Admiral's voice came from above us where he watchedfrom the castle. "Come up here, one or two of you!" Gutierrez wasnearest the ladder. He mounted and I after him, and we stood one oneither hand the Admiral. He pointed south of west. "A light!" His voicewas an ocean. "It is as it should be. I, Christopherus Columbus, havefirst seen the Shore of Asia!" We followed his extended hand. Clear under sail we saw it, dimmed bythe moon, but evident, a light as it were of a fire on a beach. Diegode Arana came up also and saw it. It was, we thought, more than a leagueaway, a light that must be on land and made by man. It dwindled, out itwent into night and there ran only plain silver. We waited while a manmight have swam from us to the _Pinta_, then forth it started again, redstar that was no star. Some one below us cried, "Ho, look!" The Admiralraised his voice, it rang over ship. "Aye! I saw it a time ago, haveseen it thrice! I, the Admiral, saw first. " Men were crowding tothe side to look, then it went out as though a wave had crept up anddrenched it. We gazed and gazed, but it did not come again. It might have been not land, but a small boat afire. But that is notprobable, and we upon the _Santa Maria_ held that to see burning woodon shore, though naught showed of that shore itself, was truly first toview, first of all of us, that land we sought. He did not care for theten thousand maravedies, but he cared that it should be said that Godshowed it first to him. The wind pushed us on with the flat of a great hand. Midnight and aftermidnight. At the sight of that flame we should have fired our cannon, but for some reason this was not done. Now the silver silence beyond theship was torn across by the _Pinta's_ gun. She fired, then came nearus. "Land! Land!" Now we saw it under the moon, just lifting above thesea, --lonely, peaceful, dark. It was middle night. The Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina wentanother league, then took in sail and came to anchor. CHAPTER XV THE Admiral set a watch and commanded all beside to sleep. To-morrowmight be work and wakefulness enough! The ship grew silent. With the_Pinta_ and the Nina it lay under the moon, and all around was silverwater. He did not sleep this night, I am sure. At all times he was a providentand wakeful sea king who knew his ship through and through. His habitwas light sleep and not many hours of that. He studied his books atnight while others slept. Lying in his bed, with eyes open or eyes shut, he watched form in the darkness lands across sea. This night so far from Europe passed. The sense of day at hand wrappedus. In the east arose a cool, a stern and indifferent pallor. Itchanged, it flushed. We carried in the _Santa Maria_ a cock and hens. Cock crew. Christopherus Columbus had Italian love for fit, harmonious noting ofvast events. This morning the trumpeter also of the Santa Maria wakedthose who slept. The clear and joyful notes were heard by the Pinta andthe Pinta, too, answered with music. The Nina took it from her. Beltranthe cook and his helpers gave us a stately breakfast. The Admiral cameforth from his cabin in a dress that a prince might have worn, crimsonand tawny, and around his throat a golden chain. Far and near rushedinto light, for in these lands and seas the dawn makes no tarrying. Itis almost night, then with a great clap of light it is day. We had voyaged, all thought, to Asia over an untrodden way. Every eyeturned to land. Not haze, not dissolving cloud, not a magic nothing inthe thought, but land, land, solid, palpable, like Palos strand! Had weseen a great port city, had we seen ships crowding harbor, had we seena citadel on some height, armed and frowning, had we marked temples andpalaces and banners afloat in this divine cool wind of morning, manyaboard us would have had now no surprise, would have cried, "Of course, I really knew it, though for the fun of it I pretended otherwise!" But others among us could not expect such as this after the quiet night;no light before us save that one so soon quenched, no stir of boatat all or large or small; an unearthly quiet, a low land still as asleeping marsh under moon. The light brightened. The water about us turned a blue that none therehad ever seen, so turquoise, so cerulean, so penetrable by the eye!Before us gentle surf broke on a beach bone-white. The beach with littlerise met woodland; thick it seemed and of a vivid greenness and fairlycovering the island. It was island, masthead told us, who saw blueribbon going around. Moreover, there were two others, no greater, uponthe horizon. Nor, though the woodland seemed thick as pile of velvet, was it desolate isle. We made out in three places light plumes of smoke. Now some one uttered a cry, "Men!" They were running out of the wood, down upon the white beach. Theremight be a hundred. "Naked men! They are dark--They are negroes!"--"Or magicians!" The Admiral lifted his great voice. "Mariners all! India and Cathay arefringed with islands, as are many parts of Europe. A dozen of you havesailed among the Greek islands. There may be as many here as those. Thisis a small island and its folk simple. They are not Negroes, but theskin of the Indian is darker than ours, and that of Cipango and Cathayis yellow. As for clothing, in all warm lands the simpler folk wearlittle. But as for magicians, there may be magicians among them asthere are among all peoples, but it is falseness and absurdity to speakof all as magicians! Nonsense and cowardice! The man who cried that goesnot ashore to-day!" Not Great India before us nor Golden Cipango! But it was land--land--itwas solid, there were folk! How long had flowed the sea around us, forthis was the twelfth of October, five weeks since Gomera and above twomonths since Palos had sunk away and we had heard the last faint bell ofLa Rabida! And there had been strong doubt if ever we should see again awhite beach, or a tree, or a kindly fire ashore, or any men but those ofour three ships, or ever another woman or a child. But land--land!Here was land and green woods and crowds of strange folk. The marinerslaughed, and the tears stood in their eyes and friends embraced. Andthey grew mightily respectful to the Admiral. So many were to go ashore in the first boat, and so many in the second. The _Pinta_ and the Nina were lowering their boats. Our hidalgos aboard, Diego de Arana, Roderigo Sanchez and the rest, had also fine apparelwith them--seeing that the Grand Khan would have a court and ourSovereigns must be rightly represented--and this morning they suitedthemselves only less splendidly than did the Admiral. The great bannerof Castile and Leon was ready for carrying. Trumpet, drum and fifeshould land. Fray Ignatio was ready--oh, ready! His liquid dark eyes hadan unearthly look. Gifts were being sorted out. There were aboard richthings, valued in any land of ours, for gifts to the Grand Khan and hisministers, or the Emperor of Cipango and his. For Queens and Empressesand Ladies also. And there was a wondrous missal for Prester John didwe find him! But this was evidently a little island afar, and these werenaked, savage men. The expedition was provident. It had for all. ThePortuguese, our great navigators, had taught what the naked Africanliked. A basket stood at hand filled with pieces of colored cloth, beads, caps, hawk bells, fishhooks, toys of sorts. For that we mighthave trouble, four harquebus men and four crossbows were going. The_Santa Maria_ carried two cannon. Now at the Admiral's signal, one ofthese was discharged. It was a voice not heard before in this world. If he wished to produce awe that should accompany him like the ancientpillars of cloud and fire, he had success. When the smoke cleared we sawthe wild men prostrate upon the ivory beach as though a scythe had cutthem down. They lay like fallen grain, then rose and made haste for thewood. We could thinly hear their shouting. Christopherus Columbus descended into the boat of the _Santa Maria_, Fray Ignatio after him. Diego de Arana, Roderigo Sanchez, Escobedo, Gutierrez and Juan Lepe the physician followed. Juan de la Cosa stayedwith the ship, it not being wise to take away all authority. Our armedmen came after and the rowers. We drew off and the small boat filled. Boats of the Pinta and the Nina joined us. The great banner over us, theAdmiral's hand upon its standard, we rowed for Asia. Nearer and nearer. The water hung about us, plain marvel, not dark blue, but turquoise and clear as air. We could see the strange, bright-huedfish and the white bottom. The air breathed Maytime, and now we thoughtwe could tell the spices. And so ivory-white it was, the long curvedbeach, and so gayly bright the emerald of the wood! There were manypalms with other trees we knew not. It was low, the island, and it shonebefore us silver and green, and the trees moved gently in a wind moresweet, we thought, than any Andalusian zephyr. Pedro Gutierrez stared. "Paradise--Paradise!" It was not what we had looked for, but it was good enough. It seemeddivine, that morning! Nearer we drew, nearer. The beach was now bare. We made out the dark, naked folk at edge of the wood, in tree shadows, watching us. Were theystrange to us, be sure we were stranger to them! The azure water, so marvelous, met that sand white like crushed bone, strewn with delicate shells. Never was wind so sweet as that which blewthis morning! Green plumes, the palms brushed the sky; there seemed tous fruit trees also, with satin stems and wide-laden boughs. When welooked over shoulder the _Santa Maria_, the Pinta and the Nina each rodedouble, mast and hull in sky, mast and hull in mirror sea. Somethingstrange and divine was about us, over us. We wished to laugh, we wishedto weep. Boat head touched clean sand. The oars rested. Christopherus Columbusthe Admiral stepped from boat first and alone, all waiting as was right. He took with him the banner of Spain. He walked a few yards, then struckthe standard into the sand. There was air enough to open the folds, to make them float and fly. Kneeling, he bowed himself and kissed theearth. We heard his strong voice praying. "_Domine Deus, aeterne etomnipotens, sacro tuo verbo coelum, et terra, et mare, creasti_--" We also bowed our heads. He rose and cried to Fray Ignatio. TheFranciscan was the next to enter this new world. After him sprang outDiego de Arana and the others. The Pinzons, too, were now leaving theirboats. All were at last gathered about the Admiral, between blue waterand green wood. Fifty Spaniards, we gathered there, and we heard ourfellows left upon the ships cheering us. We kneeled and Fray Ignatiothanked God for us. We rose, drew long breath and looked about us, then turned to theAdmiral with loud praise and gratulation. He was girded with a sword, cross-hilted. Drawing it, he set its point in the sand. Then with onehand upon the cross, and one lifted and wrapped in the banner folds, he, with a great voice, proclaimed Spain's ownership. To the King and Queenof the Spains all lands unchristian and idolatrous that we might findand use and hold, all that were clearly away from the line of the Kingof Portugal, drawn for him by the Holy Father! In the name of God, inthe name of Holy Church, in the name of Isabella, Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, King of Aragon and their united Power, amen and amen! Hemotioned to the trumpeter who put trumpet to his lips and blew a blastto the north and the south and the east and the west. At the sound thereseemed to come a cry from the fringing wood, a cry of terror. The island was ours, --if all this could make it ours. A piece of scarlet cloth spread upon the sand had heaped upon itnecklaces of glass and three or four hawk bells with other toys. Weplaced it there, then stood back. At the Admiral's command the harquebusand crossbow men laid their weapons down, though watchful eye was kept. But no arrow flights had come from the wood, and as far as could be seensome kind of lance, not formidable looking, was their only weapon. Nextthe Admiral made our fifer to play a merry and peaceful air. We had noted a clump of trees advanced into the sand and we thought thatthe bolder men were occupying this. Now a man started out alone, a youngman by the looks of him, drawn as he was against the white sand, anda paladin, for he marched to meet alone he knew not what or whom. "Blackamoor!" exclaimed De Arana beside me, but as he came nearer we sawthat the dead blackness was paint, laid in a fantastic pattern upon hisface and body. Native hue of skin, as we came presently to find in theunpainted, was a pleasing red-brown. He advanced walking daintily andproudly, knowing that his people were watching him. Single Castilian, single Moor, had advanced so, many a time, between camps, or betweencamp and fortress. Halting beside the red cloth he stooped and turned over the trinkets. When he straightened himself he had in hand a string of great beads, rose and blue and green. He fingered these, seemed about to put thenecklet on, then refrained as too daring. Laying it gently back upon thescarlet he next took up a hawk bell. These bells, as is known, ring veryclear and sweet. I was afterwards told that the Portuguese had notedtheir welcome among the African people. There was no nail's breadth ofinformation that this man Columbus could not use! He had used this, andin a list for just possibly found savage Indians had put down, "goodnumber of hawk bells. " The red man painted black, took up the hawk bell. It chimed as he movedit. He dropped it on the sand and gave back a step, then picked it upand set it tinkling. His face, the way in which he moved, said "Musicfrom heaven!" The Admiral motioned to Fray Ignatio to move toward him. That good manwent gently forward. The youth gave back, but then braced himself, underthe eyes of his nation. He stood. The Franciscan put out a gowned armand a long, lean kindly hand. The youth, naked as the bronze of agod, hesitated, raised his own arm, let it drop upon the other's. FrayIgnatio, speaking mild words, brought him across and to the Admiral. The latter, tallest of us all and greatly framed, lofty of port, dressedwith magnificence, silver-haired, standing forth from his officers andmen, the banner over him, would be taken by any for Great Captain, chiefgod of these gods, and certes, at the first they thought that we weregods! The Indian put his hands to his face, shrank like a girl and cameslowly to his knees and lower yet until his forehead rested upon theearth. The Admiral lifted him, calling him "son. " Those of his kind watching from the wood now sent forth a considerabledeputation. There came to us a dozen naked men, fairly tall, well-shaped, skin of red copper, smeared often with paint in bars anddisks and crescents. Their hair was not like the Negro's, the only othernaked man our time knew, but was straight, black, somewhat coarse, notbushy but abundant, cut short with the men below the ear. They area beardless people. Our beards are an amazement to them, as are ourclothes. A fiercely quarrelsome folk, a peace-keeping, gentle folk willsound their note very soon. These belonged to the latter kind. Theirlances were not our huge knightly ones, nor the light, hard ones of theMoors. They were hardly more than stout canes, the head not iron--theyhad no iron--but flint or bone shaped by a flint knife. Where the paintwas not splashed or patterned over them, their faces could be liked verywell. Lips were not over full, the nose slightly beaked, the foreheadfairly high, the eyes good. They did not jabber nor move idly but keptmeasure and a pleasant dignity. They seemed gentle and happy. So werethey when we found them. Their speech sounded of no tongue that we knew. Luis Torres and I alikehad knowledge of Arabic. We had no Persian that might be nearer yet, butArabia being immemorially caravan-knit with India, it was thought thatit might be understood. But these bare folk had no notion of it, norof the Hebrew which Luis tried next. The Latin did not do, the Greekof which I had a little did not do. But there is an old, old languagecalled Gesture. If, wherever there is a common language there is onepeople, then in end and beginning surely we are one folk around theearth! We were to be friends with these islanders. "Friends first and last!"believed the Admiral. Indeed, all felt it so, this bright day. If theywere not all we had imaged, sailing to them, yet were they men, andunthreatening, novel, very interesting to us with their island and theirmarvelous blue water. All was heightened by sheer joy of landing, andof finding--finding something! And what we found was not horrible nordeathful, but bright, promising, scented like first fruits. To them we found we were gods! They moved about us with a kind ofceremony of propitiation. Two youths came with a piece of bark carriedlike a salver, piled with fruits and with thin cakes of some scrapedroot. Another brought a parrot, a great green and rose bird that atonce talked, though we could not understand his words. Two older men hadballs, as large as melons, of some wound stuff that we presently foundto be cotton loosely twisted into yarn. The Admiral's eyes glowed. "Nowif any bring spices or pepper--" But they did not, nor did they bringgold. All these things they put down before us, in silence or with words thatwe thought were petitions, moving not confusedly but with a manner ofritual. The Admiral took a necklace and placed it round the throat ofthe young man who first had dared, and in his hand put a hawk bell. Thatwas enough for himself to do, who was Viceroy. Three of us finished thedistribution. They who had brought presents were given presents. Allwould have us go with them to their village, just behind the trees. Ahandful of men we left with the boats and the rest of us crossed sand. Harquebuses and crossbows went with us, but we had no need of them. Theisland apparently followed peace, and its folk greatly feared to giveoffense to gods from the sky. Above the ships held a range of pearlyclouds, out of which indeed one might make strange lands and forms. The Indians--Christopherus Columbus called them "Indians"--pointed fromships to cloud. They spoke with movements of reverence. "You have comedown--you have come down!" We understood them, though their words werenot ours. Now the greenwood rose close at hand. The trees differed, the woventhickness of it, the color and blossom, from any wood at home. A spaceopened before us, and here was the village of these folk, --round hutsthatched with palm leaves, set on no streets, but at choice under trees. Earth around was trodden hard, but the green woods pressed close. Hereand there showed garden patches with plants whose names and uses we knewnot. Now we came upon women and children. Like the men the women werenaked. Well-shaped and comely, with long, black, braided hair, theyseemed to us gentle, pleasing and fearless. The children were a crewthat any might love. Time lacks to say all that we did and heard and guessed this day uponthis island! It was first love after long weeks at sea, and our crampedships and all our great uncertainty! If it was not what we had expected, still here it was, tangible land that never had been known, wonderfulto us, giving us already rich narrative for Palos and Huelva andFishertown, for Cordova and the Queen and King. We were sure now thatother land was to be met, so soon as we sailed a reasonable distance tomeet it. Under the horizon would be land surely, and surely of an importthat this small island lacked, like Paradise though it seemed to usthis day! Any who looked at the Admiral saw that he would make no longtarrying here. He named this island San Salvador, but we would not waitin San Salvador. This day in shifts, all our men were brought ashore, each divisionhaving three hours of blessed land. So good was earth under foot, sogood were trees, so delectable the fruit, so lovely to move and run andwatch every moving, running, walking thing! And these good, red-brownfolk, naked it was true, but mannerly after their own fashion, whothought every seaman a god, and the ship boys sons of gods! And we alsowere good and mannerly, the _Santa Maria_, the Pinta and the Nina. Ilook back and I see a strange, a boyish and a happy day. The sun was westering. We felt the exhaustion of a long holiday withnovelties so many that at last the senses did not answer. Perhaps theIndians felt it too. Often and often have I seen great wisdom guide theAdmiral. An hour before approaching night might have said "Go!" he tookus one and all back to the ships. "_Salve Regina_" was a sound thatevening to hear, and afterwards it was to sleep, sleep, --tired as fromthe Fair at Seville! CHAPTER XVI AT first, the day before, we had not made out that the Indians hadboats. Later, straying here and there, we had seen them drawn upon theshore and covered with boughs of trees. They called them "canoes", madethem, large and small, out of trunks of trees, hollowed by fire, andwith their stone knives. We had seen one copper knife. Asked about that, they pointed to the south and seemed to say that yonder dwelled men whohad all they wished of most things. From dark the east grew pale, from pallor put on roses. This day nomariner grumbled at the call to awake. Here still lay our FortunateIsle, our San Salvador; here our ivory beach, our green wood. Up wentthe little curls of smoke. We had breakfast. So great was now the deference to him who three daysago had been "madman" and "black magician", "dreaming fool" and "spinnerwithout thread!" Now it was "Admiral", "Excellency", and "What shall wedo next?" and "What is your opinion, sir?" The immediate thing to do proved to be to come forth from cabin and markthe beach thronging with thrice the number of yesterday, and the canoesputting off to us. We counted eight. Only one was a long craft, holdingtwenty men; the others came in cockle boats, with one or two or three. Not only canoes, but they came swimming, men and boys, all a dark gracein the cerulean, lucid sea. They were so fearless--for we came fromheaven and would not harm them. We were going to make them rich; we weregoing to "save" them. A score perhaps were helped aboard the _Santa Maria_. The Pinta, theNina, had others. They were like children, touching, staring, excitedlytalking and gesturing among themselves, or gazing in a kind of fixedawe, asking of the least sailor with all reverence, bowing themselvesbefore the Admiral, the over-god. The Admiral moved richly dressed, raptand benignant, yet sparing a part of himself to keep all order, measure, rightness on the ship, and another part to find out with keen pains, "What of other lands? What of folk who must be your superiors?" They had brought offerings. Half a dozen parrots perched around, verygorgeously colored, loquacious in a speech we did not know. We hadstacks of the large round thin cakes baked on stones which afterwardswe called cassava, and great gourds, "calabashes" filled with fruit, andballs of cotton in a rude thread. We gave beads, bits of cloth, littlepurses, and the small bells that caused extravagant delight. But everthe Admiral looked for signs of gold, for he must find for princes andnobles and merchants gold or silver, or precious stones or spice, or alltogether. If he found them not, half his fortunes fell; a half-wind onlywould henceforth fill his sails. And at last came in a canoe with three a young Indian who wore in hisear a knob of gold. Roderigo Sanchez saw this first and brought him tothe Admiral. The latter, taking up an armlet of green glass and a hawkbell, touched the gold in the ear. "Do you trade?" Glad enough was theIndian to trade. It lay in the Admiral's palm, a piece of gold as greatas a filbert. Juan Lepe watched him make inquisition, Diego de Arana, Sanchez andEscobedo at his elbow. He did it to admiration, with look, gesture andtone ably translating his words. "Gold--gold?" The Indian said, or weput down in this wise what he said, "Harac. " Was there more harac on the island? We would give heavenly things forharac. The Indian was doubtful; he thought proudly that he had the onlyharac. "Where did he get it?" He indicated the south. "Little island like this one?" "No. Great land. Harac there in many ears. Much harac. " So we understood him. "Cipango!" breathed the Admiral. "Or neighbor toCipango, increasingly rich and civilized as we go. " He took a case of small boxes, each box filled with merchandise of spicewhich he desired. Cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, saffron, cloves and others. He made the islander smell and taste. "Had they aught like these?" The Indian seemed to say they had not, but would like to have. He lookedabout for something with which to trade, a parrot, or heap of cakes, orball of cotton. I thought that it was the box of boxes that he extremelywished, but the Admiral thought it was the spicery, and that he musthave known them wherever he got the gold. "Were they found yonder?" The Admiral stretched arm out over blue sea and the Indian followed hisgesture. He shot out his own arm, "South--southwest--west, " nodded theAdmiral. "Many islands, or the mainland. Gates open before us!" "Had the Indian been to these lands?" No, it seemed, but one had come ina boat, wearing this knob of gold, and he had told them. Was he living?No, he was not living. What kind of a person was he? Such as us?Emphatically no. Not such as us! Much, we gathered, as was the Indianhimself. "Pearls have come from Queen's neck to Queen's neck, " quoth theAdmiral, "by a thousand rude hands and twisting ways!" There was one woman among the visitors to the _Santa Maria_, a youngwoman, naked, freely moving and smiling. Eyes dwelled on her, eyesfollowed her. She was with an Indian who might be brother or husband. The Admiral gave her a worked, Moorish scarf. She tied it about herhead, and the bright ends fell down beside her long, black, braidedhair. None touched her, but they were woman-starved, and they looked ather hungrily. She had beauty in her way, and a kind of innocence bothfrank and shy. She was like a doe in the green forest, come silentlyupon at dawn. Fed full of marvel at last, these Indians left us. But no soonerhad they reached land and told of great kindness on the part of theinhabitants of heaven than other canoes and other swimmers put forth. This might go on all day, so we checked it by ourselves going ashore. This day we filled our water casks and took aboard much fruit and allthe cakes that they brought us. Moreover we explored the island, findingtwo villages of a piece with the first, and in the middle land a fairpool of water. This day like yesterday was blissful wine. All blessed Christopherus Columbus. No man now but, for a while, did hisbidding with an open heart. In the morning we sailed away, not without plentiful promises of return. When we put up our white sails they cried out and pointed to the cloudsierra. No! We would not go back to heaven--or if we did so we wouldcome again, loving so our gentle friends upon earth! We sailed, and inall our after wanderings we never came back to this island. And neveragain, I think, while Columbus voyaged, did there come to us just thebright, exquisite thrill of that first land after long doubt and noland. San Salvador--Holy Saviour Island! CHAPTER XVII WE were in a throng of islands. We might drop all for a little while, then from masthead "Land ho!" None were great islands, many far smallerthan San Salvador. At night we lay to, not knowing currents and shoals;then broke the day and we flung out sail. We had with us upon the _Santa Maria_ three San Salvador men. Theyhad come willingly, two young, fearless men, and one old man with awrinkled, wise, interested face. Assiduous to gain their tongue andimpart our own, the Admiral, beside his own effort, told off forespecial teachers and scholars Luis Torres and Juan Lepe. We did gainknowledge, but as yet everything was imperfect, without fine shading, and subject to all miscomprehension. But like the rest of us, theAdmiral guessed in accordance with his wishes and his previous belief. All these islands lay flat or almost flat upon the sea. All showed ivorybeach, vivid wood, surrounding water, transparent and heavenly blue, inhabited by magically colored fish. When we dropped anchor, took boatand landed, it was to find the same astonished folk, naked, harmless, holding us for gods, bringing all they had, eager for our toys whichwere to them king's treasures and holy relics. Every island the Admiralnamed; he gave them goodly names! Over and over the Indians pointedsouth and west. We understood great lands, clothed men, much gold. Butwhen we next came to anchor, like small island, like men, women andchildren. We traded for a few more knobs of gold, but they were few. Toscanelli's map and the Admiral's map lay on cabin table. "Islands inthe Sea of Chin--Polo and Mandeville alike say thousands--all gradesthen of advance. Beyond any manner of doubt, persevering west or west bysouth, we shall come to main Asia. " So long as he ruled, there would beperseverance! At Santa Maria de la Concepcion a solitary large canoe crowded withIndians was rowing toward us. One of the San Salvador young men aboardus fancied some slight, experienced some fear, or may even, --whoknows?--have wearied of the gods. Springing upon the rail he threwhimself into sea and made off with great strokes toward the canoe. Pedrobehind him shouted "Escape!" There was a rush to the side to observe. Fernando bawled, "Come back! or we'll let fly an arrow. " He swam, the dark, naked fellow, like a fish. Reaching the canoe, theIndians there took him in; he seemed to have a tale to tell, they allbroke into talk, the canoe went round, they rowed fast back to land. The_Nina_, lying near us, had her boat filling to go ashore. Her men hadseen the leap overboard and the swimmer. Now they put after, rowing hardfor the canoe, that having the start came first to beach. The Indianssprang out, the San Salvador man with them. Leaving canoe, they ranacross sand into wood. The _Nina's_ men took the canoe and brought it tothe _Santa Maria_. In it were balls of cotton and calabashes filled withfruit and a chattering parrot. It was the first thing of this kind thathad happened, and the Admiral's face was wrathful. He had a simple, kindly heart, and though he could be vexed or irritated, he rarely brokeinto furious anger. But first and last he desired peaceful absorption, if by any means that were possible, of these countries. We absorbingthem, they absorbing us; both the gainers! And he had warm feeling ofromance-love for all this that he was finding. He saw all his enterprisemilk-white, rose-bright. And his pride was touched that the Indian whohad seemed contented had not truly been so, and that the _Nina_'s menhad disobeyed strict commands for friendliness. He would restore thatcontent if possible, and he would have no more unordered chasing ofcanoes. The Nina's men got anger and rebuke, Captain Cristoforo Colombomounting up in the Admiral. He would let nothing in the canoe be touched. Instead he had placedaboard a pot of honey and a flask of wine and three pieces of cloth, then with a strong shove it was sent landward, and the tide making in, it came to shore. We saw two venture from the wood and draw it up onbeach. In a little while came around a point of shore a canoe with one Indianwho made toward us, using his oar very dexterously, and when he enteredour shadow holding up cotton and fruit. It was to be seen that he hadhad no communication with the men of the large canoe. The Admiral himself called out encouragingly and snatching the firstsmall thing at hand held it up. The Indian scrambled on board. He stood, as fine a piece of bronze as any might see, before the Genoese, as greata figure as might be found in all Italy--all Spain--all Europe. The elder touched the younger, the white man the red man, as a king, afather, might have touched a prince, a son. He himself took the youthover our ship, showing him this, showing him that, had the music playfor him, brought him to Fray Ignatio who talked of Christ, pointing oftto heaven. (To my thinking this action, often repeated, was one of thethings that for so long made them certain we had come from the skies. )In the cabin he gave the Indian a cup of wine and a biscuit dipped inhoney. He gave him a silken cap with a tassel and himself put round histhroat one of our best strings of beads, and into his hand not one butthree of the much-coveted hawk bells. He was kinder than rain afterdrought. First and last, he could well lend himself to the policy ofkindness, for it was not lending. Kindness was his nature. In an hour this Indian, returned to his canoe, was rowing toward shorewith a swelling heart and a determined loyalty. He touched the island, and we could trust him to be missionary, preaching with all fervor ofheaven and the gods. Ay, me! Whatever the other's defection, he more than covered it, the return ofthe canoe aiding. Santa Maria de la Concepcion became again friendly. But the Admiral that evening gave emphatic instruction to Martin andVicente Pinzon and all the gathered Spaniards. Just here, I think, beganthe rift between him and many. Many would have by prompt taking, as theytake in war. Were not all these heathen and given? But he would haveanother way round, though often he compromised with war; never wantingwar but forced by his time and his companions. Sometimes, in the future, forced by the people we came among, but far oftener forced by greed andlust and violence of our own. Alas, again! Alas, again and again! After Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Fernandina, and after Fernandinathe most beautiful of islands, Isabella, where we lay three days. Peopleupon this island seemed to us more civilized than the Salvador folk. The cotton was woven, loin cloths were worn, they had greater variety ofcalabashes, the huts were larger, the villages more regular. They sleptin "hamacs" which are stout and wide cotton nets slung between posts, two or three feet above earth. Light, space-giving, easy of removal, these beds greatly took our fancy. Here we sought determinedly for spice-giving trees and medicinal herbsand roots. It was not a spicery such as Europe depended upon, but stillcertain things seemed valuable! We gathered here and gathered there whatmight be taken to Spain. There grew an emulation to find. The Admiraloffered prizes for such and such a commodity come upon. We sailed from Isabella and after three days came to Cuba. CHAPTER XVIII CUBA! At first he called it Juana, but we came afterwards still to usethe Indian name. Cuba! We saw it after three days, and it was littleenough like Isabella, Fernandina, Concepcion, San Salvador and theislets the Admiral called Isles de Arena. It covered all our south, nolevel, shining thing that masthead could see around, but a mighty coastline, mountainous, with headlands and bays and river mouths. Now afterlong years, I who outlive the Admiral, know it for an island, buthow could he or I or any know that in November fourteen hundred andninety-two? He never believed it an island. He stood on deck watching. "Cuba--Cuba! Have you not read of CublaiKhan? The sounds chime!" "Cublai Khan. He lives in Quinsai. " "Ay. His splendid, capital city. Buildings all wonderful, and gardenslike Mahound's paradise!" "But if it is Cipango?" "Ay. It may be Cipango. We have no angel here to tell us which. I wouldone would fly down and take us by the hand! Being men, we must makeguesses. " Beautiful to us, splendid to us, was this coast of Cuba! We sailed byheadlands and deep, narrow-necked bays, river mouths and hanging forestsand bold cliffs. We sailed west and still headland followed headland, and still the lookout cried, "It stretched forever like the main!" We came to a river where ships might ride. Sounding, we found deepwater, entered river mouth and dropped anchor, then went ashore in theboats. Palms and their water doubles, and in the grove a small abandonedvillage. We had seen the people flee before us, and they were no morenor other kind of people than had showed in Concepcion or Fernandina. Yet were they a little wealthier. We found parrots on their perches, and two dogs, small and wolf-like that never barked. In one hut lay aharpoon tipped with bone, and a net for fishing. In another we found awrought block of wood which Fray Ignatio pronounced their idol. We went back to our ships, and leaving river, sailed on in a bright bluesea. The next day we doubled a cape and found a great haven, but silentand sailless, with no maritime city thronging the shore. What was thisworld, so huge, so sparely, rudely peopled? We came to anchor close under shore in this haven. Again the marvelouswater, but now it laved a bold and great country! We landed. Canoesfastened in a row, another village, most of the folk decamped, but a fewbrave men and women tarrying to find out something about heaven and itsinmates. With toys again and pacific gestures we wiled them to us. There was upon the _Santa Maria_ a young Indian who had chosen to comewith us from Fernandina. He had courage and intelligence, was willingto receive instruction and baptism from Fray Ignatio, and first and lastfollowed the Admiral with devotion. The latter had him christened DiegoColon. We taught him Spanish as fast and soundly as we might, and usedhim as interpreter. The tongue of his island was not just the tongue ofCuba, but near enough to serve. All these Indians have a gift of oratoryand dote to speak at length, with firm voice and great gestures. Nowwe set Diego Colon to his narration. We of Castile had so much of thetongue by now that we could in some wise follow. Forth it poured! We were gods come from heaven. Yonder stood the chiefgod that the others obeyed. He was very great, strong, good, wise, kind, giving beautiful gifts! We were all kind--no one was going to be hurt. We made magic with harac--which we called "gold. " In heaven was notenough harac. So important is it to the best magic that a chief godhas come to earth to seek it. We also liked cotton and things to eat, especially cassava cakes, and we liked a very few parrots. But it wasgold that in chief we wanted. The man who brought the gods gold mightgo home with gifts so beautiful that there was never anything seen likethem! Especially is there something that the gods call "bells" that ringand sound in your hand when you dance! Gold--do you know where to findit? Another thing! They desire to find a god who dropped out of the skya long time ago, and has now a people and a great, marvelous village. Thinking he might be here, they have dived down to our land, for theydive in the sky as we dive in water! The name of the god they hunt isGrand Khan or Cublai Khan, and his village is Quinsai. Have you heardof him? They are very anxious to find him. The chief god with white hairand wonderful clothes--It is what they call clothes; under it they areas you and me, only the color is different--the chief god will give manybells to any folk who can show him the way to Quinsai. Gold and Quinsaiwhere lives the god Grand Khan. As might have been expected, this brought tidings. "Cubanacan!Cubanacan!" Whatever that might mean, they said it with assurance, pointing inland. Diego Colon interrupted their further speech. "Thereis a river. Go up it three days and come to great village. Cacique therewearing clothes. All men there have gold!" Pedro Gutierrez spoke. "They'll promise anything for a hawk bell!" "What do they understand and what do they not understand? What do theysay and what do they not say?" That was Martin Pinzon. "Between them allwe are fooled!" The Admiral, who was gazing inland after the dark pointing finger, turned and spoke. "At the root of all things sit Patience and MakeTrial! "Well, I know, " answered Pinzon, "that if these ships be not careenedand mended we shall have trouble! Weather changes. There will be storm!" He was right as to ships and weather, and the Admiral knew it and saidas much. I never saw him grudge recognition to Martin Pinzon. It hasbeen said that he did, but I never saw it. That night, on board the _Santa Maria_ there was held a great council. At last it was settled that we should rest here a week and overhaul theships, and that while that was doing, there should be sent two or threewith Indian guides to find, if might be, this river and this town. Andthere were chosen, and given a week to go and come, Juan Lepe, LuisTorres and a seaman Roderigo Jerez, with Diego Colon, the Fernandinayouth. Likewise there would go two Indians of this village, blitheenough to show their country to the gods and the gods to their country. The next day being Sunday, Fray Ignatio preached a sermon to theIndians. He assumed, and at this time I think the Admiral assumed, thatthese folk had no religion. That was a mistake. I doubt if on earth canbe found a people without religion. Men and women they watched and listened, still, attentive, knowing thatit had somehow to do with heaven. After sermon and after we had prayedand sung, we fashioned and set up a great cross upon cliff brow. Againthe Indians watched and seemed to have some notion of what we did. The remainder of the day we rested, and on Monday early RoderigoJerez, Luis Torres and Juan Lepe with Diego Colon and two Cuba men madedeparture, We had a pack of presents and a letter from the Admiral. Forwe might meet some administrator or commandant or other, from Quinsaior Zaiton or we knew not where. This was the first of many--ah, somany--expeditions, separations from main body and return, or not return, as the case might be! CHAPTER XIX FOREST endless and splendid! We white men often saw no path, but thered-brown men saw it. It ran level, it climbed, it descended; then beganthe three again. It was lost, it was found. They said, "Here path!" Butwe had to serpent through thickets, or make way on edge of dizzy crag, or find footing through morass. We came to great stretches of reedsand yielding grass, giving with every step into water. It was to toilthrough this under hot sun, with stinging clouds of insects. But whenthey were left behind we might step into a grove of the gods, suchfirmness, such pleasantness, such shady going or happy resting undertrees that dropped fruit. We met no great forest beasts. There seemed to be none in this partof Asia. And yet Luis and I had read of great beasts. Dogs of noconsiderable size were the largest four-footed things we had come uponfrom San Salvador to Cuba. There were what they called _utias_, like arabbit, much used for food, and twice we had seen an animal the size ofa fox hanging from a bough by its tail. If the beasts were few the birds were many. To see the parrots greatand small and gorgeously colored, to see those small, small birds liketossed jewels that never sang but hummed like a bee, to hear a gray birdsing clear and loud and sweet every strain that sang other birds, was tosee and hear most joyous things. Lizards were innumerable; at edge of amarsh we met with tortoises; once we passed coiled around a tree a greatserpent. It looked at us with beady eyes, but the Indians said it wouldnot harm a man. A thousand, thousand butterflies spread their paintedfans. The trees! so huge of girth and height and wherever was room sospreading, so rich of grain, so full, I knew, of strange virtues! Wefound one that I thought was cinnamon, and broke twigs and bark and putin our great pouch for the Admiral. Only time might tell the wealth ofthis green multitude. I thought, "Here is gold, if we would wait forit!" Fruit trees sprang by our path. We had with us some provision ofbiscuit and dried meat, and we never lacked golden or purple delectableorbs. We found the palm that bears the great nut, giving alike meat andmilk. By now Luis Torres and I had no little of Diego Colon's tongue and hehad Spanish enough to understand the simplest statements and orders. Ferdandina tongue was not quite Cuba tongue, but it was like enough tofurnish sea room. We asked this, we asked that. No! No one had ever cometo the end of their country. When one town was left behind, at last youcame to another town. One by one, were they bigger, better towns? Theyseemed to say that they were, but here was always, I thought, doubtfulunderstanding. But no one had ever walked around their country--theyseemed to laugh at the notion--land that way, always land! On the otherhand, there was sea yonder--like sea here. They pointed south. Not sofar there! "It must be, " said Luis, "that Cuba is narrow, though withoutend westwardly. A great point or tongue of Asia?" The Cubans were strong young men and not unintelligent. "Chiefs?"Yes, they had chiefs, they called them _caciques_. Some of them werefighters, they and their people. Not fighters like Caribs! Whereupon thespeaker rose--we were resting under a tree--and facing south, used forgesture a strong shudder and a movement as if to flee. South--south--always they pointed south! We were going south--inland. Would we come to Caribs? But no. Caribs seemed not to be in Cuba, butbeyond sea, in islands. Luis and I made progress in language and knowledge. Roderigo Jerez, a simple man, slept or tried the many kinds of fruit, or teased theslender, green-flame lizards. We slept this night high on the mountainside, on soft grass near a fallof water. The Indians showed no fear of attack from man or beast. Theycould make fire in a most ingenious fashion, setting stick againstlarger stick and turning the first with such skill, vigor andpersistence that presently arose heat, a spark, fire. But they seemedto need or wish no watch fire. They lay, naked and careless, innocent--fearless, as though the whole land were their castle. Luistried to find out how they felt about dangers. We pieced together. "Nonehere! And the Great Lizard takes care!" That was the Cuban. Diego Colonsaid, "The Great Turtle takes care!" Luis Torres laughed. "Fray Ignatio should hear that!" "It is on the road, " I said and went to sleep. The second day's going proved less difficult than the first. Lessdifficult means difficult enough! And as yet we had met no one noranything that remotely favored golden-roofed Cipango, or famous, richQuinsai, or Zaiton of the marble bridges. Jerez climbed a tall treeand coming down reported forest and mountain, and naught else. Ourcompanions watched with interest his climbing. "Do you go up trees inheaven?" This morning we had bathed in a pool below the little waterfall. DiegoColon by now was used to us so, but the Cuba men displayed excitement. They had not yet in mind separated us from our clothes. Now we wereseparated and were found in all our members like them, only the colordiffering. Color and the short beards of Luis Torres and Juan Lepe. Theywished to touch and examine our clothes lying upon the bank, but hereDiego Colon interfered. They were full of magic. Something terriblemight happen! When Luis and I came forth from water and dried ourselveswith handfuls of the warm grass, they asked: "Do they do so in heaven?"The stronger, more intelligent of the two, added, "It is not sodifferent!" I said to Luis as we took path after breakfast, "It is borne in uponme that only from ourselves, Admiral to ship boy, can we keep up thisheaven ballad! Clothes, beads and hawk bells, cannon, harquebus, trumpet and banner, ship and sails, royal letters and blessing of thePope--nothing will do it long unless we do it ourselves!" "Agreed!" quoth Luis. "But gods and angels are beginning to slip andslide, back there by the ships! We have the less temptation here. " He began to speak of a sailor and a brown girl upon whom he had stumbledin a close wood a little way from shore. She thought Tomaso Pasamontewas a god wooing her and was half-frightened, half-fain. "And two hourslater I saw Don Pedro Gutierrez--" "Ay, " said Juan Lepe. "The same story! The oldest that is!" And as atthe word our savages, who had been talking together, now at the nextresting place put forward their boldest, who with great reverence askedif there were women in heaven. Through most of this day we struggled with a difficult if fantasticallybeautiful country. Where rock outcropped and in the sands of brightrapid streams we looked for signs of that gold, so stressed as thoughit were the only salvation! But the rocks were silent, and though inthe bed of a shrunken streamlet we found some glistening particles andscraping them carefully together got a small spoonful to wrap in clothand bestow in our pouch of treasures, still were we not sure that it waswholly gold. It might be. We worked for an hour for just this pinch. Since yesterday morning our path had been perfectly solitary. Thensuddenly, when we were, we thought, six leagues at least from the ships, the way turning and entering a small green dell, we came upon threeIndians seated resting, their backs to palm trees. We halted, theyraised their eyes. They stared, they rose in amazement at the sight ofthose gods, Roderigo Jerez, Luis Torres and Juan Lepe. They stood likestatues with great eyes and parted lips. For us, coming silently uponthem, we had too our moment of astonishment. They were three copper men, naked, fairly tall and well to look at. Buteach had between his lips what seemed a brown stick, burning at the farend, dropping a light ash and sending up a thin cloud of odorous smoke. These burning sticks they dropped as they rose. They had seemed sosilent, so contented, so happy, sitting there with backs to trees, a firebrand in each mouth, I felt a love for them! Luis thought thelighted sticks some rite of their religion, but after a while when wecame to examine them, we found them not true stick, but some large, thickish brown leaf tightly twisted and pressed together and having apungent, not unpleasing odor. We crumbled one in our hands and tastedit. The taste was also pungent, strange, but one might grow to like it. They called the stick tobacco, and said they always used it thus withfire, drinking in the smoke and puffing it out again as they showed usthrough the nostrils. We thought it a great curiosity, and so it was! But to them we were unearthly beings. The men from the sea told ofus, then as it were introduced Diego Colon, who spoke proudly withappropriate gesture, loving always his part of herald Mercury--orrather of herald Mercury's herald--not assuming to be god himself, butcherishing the divine efflux and the importance it rayed upon him! The three Indians quivered with a sense of the great adventure! Theirtown was yonder. They themselves had been on the path to such and such aplace, but now would they turn and go with us, and when we went againto the sea they, if it were permitted, would accompany us and view forthemselves our amazing canoes! All this to our companion. They backedwith great deference from us. We went with these Indians to their town, evidently the town which wesought. And indeed it was larger, fitter, a more ordered community thanany we had met this side Ocean-Sea, though far, far from travelers'tales of Orient cities! It was set under trees, palm trees and others, by the side of a clear river. The huts were larger than those by thesea, and set not at random but in rows with a great trodden squarein the middle. From town to river where they fished and where, underoverhanging palms, we found many Canoes, ran a way wider than a path, much like a narrow road. But there were no wheeled vehicles nor draughtanimals. We were to find that in all these lands they on occasioncarried their caciques or the sick or hurt in litters or palanquinsborne on men's shoulders. But for carrying, grinding, drawing, they knewnaught of the wheel. It seemed strange that any part of Asia should notknow! In this town we found the cacique, and with him a _butio_ or priest. Once, too, I thought, our king and church were undeveloped like these. We were looking in these lands upon the bud which elsewhere we knew inthe flower. That to Juan Lepe seemed the difference between them and us. The people swarmed out upon us. When the first admiration was somewhatover, when Diego Colon and the two seaside men and the Cubans of theburning sticks had made explanation, we were swept with them into theirpublic square and to a hut much larger than common where we found astately Indian, the cacique, and an ancient wrinkled man, the _butio_. These met us with their own assumption of something like godship. Theyhad no lack of manner, and Luis and I had the Castilian to drawupon. Then came presents and Diego Colon interpreting. But as for theAdmiral's letter, though I showed it, it was not understood. It was gazed upon and touched, considered a heavenly rarity like thehawk bells we gave them, but not read nor tried to be read. The writingupon it was the natural veining of some most strange leaf that grew inheaven, or it was the pattern miraculously woven by a miraculous workmanwith thread miraculously finer than their cotton! It was strangethat they should have no notion at all--not even their chieftains andpriests--of writing! Any part of Asia, however withdrawn, surely shouldhave tradition there, if not practice! In this hut or lodge, doored but not windowed, we found a kind of tableand seats fashioned from blocks of some dark wood rudely carved andpolished. The cacique would have us seated, sat himself beside us, the_butio_ at his hand. There seemed no especial warrior class. We noted that, it being one ofthe things it was ever in order to note. No particular band of fightingmen stood about that block of polished wood, that was essentially throneor chair of state. The village owned slender, bone or flint-headedlances, but these rested idly in corners. Upon occasion all or any mightuse them, but there was no evidence that those occasions came often. There was no body of troops, nor armor, no shields, no crossbows, noswords. They had knives, rudely made of some hard stone, but it seemedthat they were made for hunting and felling and dividing. No clothinghid from us any frame. The cacique had about his middle a girdle ofwrought cotton with worked ends and some of the women wore as slight adress, but that was all. They were formed well, all of them, lithe andslender, not lacking either in sinew and muscle, but it was sinewand muscle of the free, graceful, wild world, not brawn of bowman andpikeman and swordman and knight with his heavy lance. In something theymight be like the Moor when one saw him naked, but the Moor, too, wasperfected in arms, and so they were not like. We did not know as yet if ever there were winter in this land. Itseemed perpetual, serene and perfect summer. Behind these huts ran smallgardens wherein were set melons and a large pepper of which we grewfond, and a nourishing root, and other plants. But the soil was rich, rich, and they loosened and furrowed it with a sharpened stick. Therewere no great forest beasts to set them sternly hunting. What then couldgive them toil? Not gathering the always falling fruit; not cutting fromthe trees and drying the calabashes, great and small, that they used forall manner of receptacle; not drawing out with a line of some stouterfiber than cotton and with a hook of bone or thorn the painted fish fromtheir crystal water! To fell trees for canoes, to hollow the canoe, waslabor, as was the building of their huts, but divided among so many itbecame light labor. In those days we saw no Indian figure bowed withtoil, and when it came it was not the Indian who imposed it. But they swam, they rowed their canoes, they hunted in their not arduousfashion, they roved afar in their country at peace, and they danced. That last was their fair, their games, their tourney, their pilgrimage, their processions to church, their attendance at mass, their expressionof anything else that they felt altogether and at once! It was likechildren's play, renewed forever, and forever with zest. But theydid not treat it as play. We had been showed dances in Concepcion andIsabella, but here in Cuba, in this inland town, Jerez and Luis and Iwere given to see a great and formal dance, arranged all in honor of us, gods descended for our own reasons to mix with men! They danced in thesquare, but first they made us a feast with _hutias_ and cassavaand fish and fruit and a drink not unlike mead, exhilarating but notbestowing drunkenness. Grapes were all over these lands, purple clustershanging high and low, but they knew not wine. Men and women danced, now in separate bands, now mingled together. Decorum was kept. We afterwards knew that it had been a religious dance. They had war dances, hunting dances, dances at the planting of theircorn, ghost dances and others. This now was a thing to watch, like abeautiful masque. They were very graceful, very supple; they had theirown dignity. We learned much in the three days we spent in this town. Men and womenfor instance! That nakedness of the body, that free and public mingling, going about work and adventure and play together, worked, thought JuanLepe no harm. Later on in this vast adventure of a new world, some ofour churchmen were given to asserting that they lived like animals, though the animals also are there slandered! The women were free andcomplaisant; there were many children about. But matings, I thought, occurred only of free and mutual desire, and not more frequently than inother countries. The women were not without modesty, nor the men withouta pale chivalry. At first I thought constraint or rule did not enter in, but after a talk with their priest through Diego Colon, I gathered thatthere prevailed tribe and kinship restraints. Later we were to find thata great network of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" ran through theirtotal society, wherever or to what members it might extend. Common good, or what was supposed to be common good, was the master here as it iseverywhere! The women worked the gardens, the men hunted; both men andwomen fished. Women might be caciques. There were women caciques, theysaid, farther on in their land. And it seemed to us that name and familywere counted from the mother's side. The Admiral had solemnly laid it upon us to discover the polity ofthis new world. If they held fief from fief, then at last we must comethrough however many overlords to the seigneur of them all, Grand Khanor Emperor. We applied ourselves to cacique and butio, but we found noGrand Seigneur. There were other caciques. When the Caribs descendedthey banded together. They had dimly, we thought, the idea of awar-lord. But it ended there, when the war ended. Tribute: He foundthey had no idea of tribute. Cotton grew everywhere! Cotton, cassava, calabashes, all things! When they visited a cacique they took him gifts, and at parting he gave them gifts. That was all. Gold? They knew of it. When they found a bit they kept it for ornament. The cacique possessed a piece the size of a ducat, suspended by a stringof cotton. It had been given to him by a cacique who lived on the greatwater. Perhaps he took it from the Caribs. But it was in the mountains, too. He indicated the heights beyond. Sometimes they scraped it fromsand under the stream. He seemed indifferent to it. But Diego Colon, coming in, said that it was much prized in heaven, being used for highmagic, and that we would give heavenly gifts for it. Resulted from thatthe production in an hour of every shining flake and grain and buttonpiece the village owned. We carried from this place to the Admiral asmall gourd filled with gold. But it was not greatly plentiful; that wasevident to any thinking man! But we had so many who were not thinkingmen. And the Admiral had to appease with his reports gold-thirsty greatfolk in Spain. We spent three days in this village and they were days for gods andIndians of happy wonder and learning. They would have us describeheaven. Luis and I told them of Europe. We pointed to the east. Theysaid that they knew that heaven rested there upon the great water. The town of the sun was over there. Had we seen the sun's town? Was itbeside us in heaven, in "Europe"? The sun went down under the mountains, and there he found a river and his canoe. He rowed all night until hecame to his town. Then he ate cassava cakes and rested, while the greenand gold and red Lizard [These were "Lizard" folk. They had a Lizardpainted on a great post by the cacique's house. ] went ahead to say thathe was coming. Then he rose, right out of the great water, and there wasday again! But we must know about the sun's town; we, the gods! Luis and I could have stayed long while and disentangled this place andloved the doing it. But it was to return to the Admiral and the waiting ships. The three tobacco men would go with us to see wonders, so we returnednine in number along the path. Before we set out we saw that a stormthreatened. All six Indians were loth to depart until it was over, andthe cacique would have kept us. But Luis and I did not know how long thebad weather might hold and we must get to the ships. It was Jerez whotold them boastfully that gods did not fear storms, --specimen of thatSpanish folly of ours that worked harm and harm again! We traveled until afternoon agreeably enough, then with great swiftnessthe clouds climbed and thickened. Sun went out, air grew dark. TheIndians behind us on the path, that was so narrow that we must tread oneafter the other, spoke among themselves, then Diego Colon pushed throughmarvelously huge, rich fern to Luis and me. "They say, 'will not thegods tell the clouds to go away?'" But doubt like a gnome sat in theyouth's eye. We had had bad weather off Isabella, and the gods had hadto wait for the sun like others. By now Diego Colon had seen many andstrange miracles, but he had likewise found limitations, quite numerousand decisive limitations! He thought that here was one, and I explainedto him that he thought correctly. Europeans could do many things butthis was not among them. Luis and I watched him tell the Cubans that he, Diego Colon, had never said that we three were among the highest gods. Even the great, white-headed, chief god yonder in the winged canoe wassaid to be less than some other gods in heaven which we called Europe, and over all was a High God who could do everything, scatter clouds, stop thunder or send thunder, everything! Had we brought our butio withus he might perhaps have made great magic and helped things. As it was, we must take luck. That seeming rational to the Indians, we proceeded, our glory something diminished, but still sufficient. The storm climbed and thickened and evidently was to become a fury. Windbegan to whistle, trees to bend, lightnings to play, thunder to sound. It grew. We stood in blazing light, thunder almost burst our ears, atree was riven a bow-shot away. Great warm rain began to fall. We couldhardly stand against the wind. We were going under mountainside with asplashing stream below us. Diego Colon shouted, as he must to get abovewind and thunder. "Hurry! hurry! They know place. " All began to run. After a battle to make way at all, we came to a slope of loose, smallstones and vine and fern. This we climbed, passed behind a jagged massof rock, and found a cavern. A flash lit it for us, then another andanother. At mouth it might be twenty feet across, was deep and narrowedlike a funnel. Panting, we threw ourselves on the cave floor. The storm prevailed through the rest of this day and far into the night. "_Hurricane!_" said the Cubans. "Not great one, little one!" But we fromSpain thought it a great enough hurricane. The rain fell as though itwould make another flood and in much less than forty days. We must besilent, for wind and thunder allowed no other choice. Streams of raincame into the cavern, but we found ledges curtained by rock. We atecassava cake and drank from a runlet of water. The storm made almostnight, then actual night arrived. We curled ourselves up, huggingourselves for warmth, and went to sleep. The third day from the town we came to the sea and the ships. All seemedwell. Our companions had felt the storm, had tales to tell of wrenchedanchors and the _Pinta's_ boat beat almost to pieces, uprooted trees, wind, lightning, thunder and rain. But they cut short their recital, wishing to know what we had found. Luis and I made report to the Admiral. He sat under a huge tree andaround gathered the Pinzons, Fray Ignatio, Diego de Arana, RoderigoSanchez and others. We related; they questioned, we answered; there wasdiscussion; the Admiral summed up. But later I spoke to him alone. We were now on ship, making ready forsailing. We would go eastward, around this point of Asia, since fromwhat all said it must be point, and see what was upon the other side. "They all gesture south! They say 'Babeque--Babeque! Bohio!'" I asked him, "Why is it that these Indians here seem glad for us to go?" He sighed impatiently, drawing one hand through the other, with him arecurring gesture. "It is the women! Certain of our men--" I saw himlook at Gutierrez who passed. "Tomaso Passamonte, too, " I said. "Yes. And others. It is the old woe! Now they have only to kill a man!" He arraigned short-sightedness. I said, "But still we are from heaven?" "Still. But some of the gods--just five or six, say--have fearful ways!"He laughed, sorrowfully and angrily. "And you think there is littlegold, and that we are very far from clothed and lettered Asia?" "So far, " I answered, "that I see not why we call these brown, nakedfolk Indians. " "What else would you call them?" "I do not know that. " "Why, then, let us still call them Indians. " He drummed upon the railbefore him, then broke out, "Christ! I think we do esteem hard, present, hand-held gold too much!" "I say yes to that!" He said, "We should hold to the joy of Discovery and great usehereafter--mounting use!" "Aye. " "Here is virgin land, vast and beautiful, with a clime like heaven, androom for a hundred colonies such as Greece and Rome sent out! Here is adocile, unwarlike people ready to be industrious servitors and peasants, for which we do give them salvation of their souls! It is all Spain's, the banner is planted, the names given! We are too impatient! We cannothave it between dawn and sunset! But look into the future--there iswealth beyond counting! No great amount of gold, but enough to show thatthere is gold. " I followed the working of his mind. It was to smile somewhatsorrowfully, seeing his great difficulties. He was the born Discoverermightily loving Discovery, and watching the Beloved in her life throughtime. But he had to serve Prince Have-it-now, in the city Greed. I said, "Senor, do not put too much splendor in your journal for the King andQueen and the Spanish merchants and the Church and all the chivalry thatthe ended war releases! Or, if you prophesy, mark it prophecy. It is agreat trouble in the world that men do not know when one day is talkedof or when is meant great ranges of days! Otherwise you will haveall thirsty Spain sailing for Ophir and Golden Chersonesus, wealthimmediate, gilding Midas where he stands! If they find disappointmentthey will not think of the future; they will smite you!" I knew that he was writing in that book too ardently, and that he waseven now composing letters to great persons to be dispatched from whatSpanish port he should first enter, coming back east from west, overOcean-Sea, from Asia! But he had long, long followed his own advice, stood by his own course. The doing so had so served him that it was natural he should haveconfidence. Now he said only, "I do the best I can! I have little searoom. One Scylla and Charybdis? Nay, a whole brood of them!" I could agree to that. I saw it coming up the ways that they would givehim less and less sea room. He went on, "Merchandise has to be madeattractive! The cook dresses the dish, the girl puts flowers in herhair. . . . Yet, in the end the wares are mighty beyond description! Thedish is for Pope and King--the girl is a bride for a paladin!" Again he was right afar and over the great span. But they would not seein Spain, or not many would see, that the whole span must be taken. ButI was not one to chide him, seeing that I, too, saw afar, and they wouldnot see with me either in Spain. CHAPTER XX WE sailed for two days east by south. But the weather that had beenperfection for long and long again from Palos, now was changed. Deadwinds delayed us, the sea ridged, clouds blotted out the blue. We heldon. There was a great cape which we called Cape Cuba. Off this a stormmet us. We lived it out and made into one of those bottle harbors ofwhich, first and last, we were to find God knows how many in Cuba! The Admiral named it Puerto del Principe, and we raised on shore herea very great cross. We had done this on every considerable island sinceSan Salvador and now twice on this coast. There were behind us sevenor eight crosses. The banner planted was the sign of the Sovereignty ofSpain, the cross the sign of Holy Church, Sovereign over sovereigns, who gave these lands to Spain, as she gave Africa and the islands toPortugal. We came to a great number of islets, rivers of clear blue seabetween. The ships lay to and we took boat and went among these. TheKing's Gardens, the Admiral called them, and the calm sea between themand mainland the Sea of Our Lady. They were thickly wooded, and wethought we found cinnamon, aloes and mastic. Two lovely days we had inthis wilderness of isles and channels where was no man nor woman atall, then again we went east and south, the land trending that way. Very distant, out of eastern waste, rose what seemed a large island. TheAdmiral said that we should go discover, and we changed course towardit, but in three hours' time met furious weather. The sea rose, cloudslike night closed us in. Night came on without a star and a contrarywind blew always. When the dawn broke sullenly we were beaten back toCuba, and a great promontory against which truly we might have beendashed stood to our north and shut out coast of yesterday. Here we hunga day and night, and then the wind lulling and the sea running notso high, we made again for that island which might be Babeque. We hadIndians aboard, but the sea and the whipping and groaning of our mastsand rigging and sails and the pitching of the ship terrified them, andterror made them dull. They sat with knees drawn up and head buried inarms and shivered, and knew not Babeque from anything else. Christopherus Columbus could be very obstinate. Wishing strongly to gainthat island, through all this day he had us strive toward it. But thewind was directly ahead and strong as ten giants. The master and othersmade representations, and at last he nodded his gray head and orderedthe _Santa Maria_ put about and the Pinta and the Nina signaled. TheNina harkened and turned, but the Pinta at some distance seemed deafand blind. Night fell while still we signaled. We were now for Cuba, andthe wind directly behind us, but yet as long as we could see, the Pintachose not to turn. We set lights for signals, but her light fell fartherand farther astern. She was a swifter sailer than we; there was noreason for that increasing distance. We lay to, the _Nina_ beside us. Ere long we wholly lost the Pinta's light. Night passed. When morningbroke Captain Martin Alonso Pinzon and the Pinta were gone. The sea, though rough, was not too perilous, and never a signal ofdistress had been seen nor heard. "Lost? Is the Pinta lost?" "Lost! No!--But, yes. Willfully lost!" It was Roderigo Sanchez who knew not much of the sea who asked, and theAdmiral answered. But having spoken it that once, he closed his stronglips and coming down from deck said he would have breakfast. All thatday was guessing and talk enough upon the _Santa Maria_; silent orslurred talk at last, for toward noon the Admiral gave sharp order thatthe Pinta should be left out of conversation. Captain Martin Pinzon wasan able seaman. Perhaps something (he reminded us of the rudder beforethe Canaries) had gone wrong. Captain Pinzon may have thought the islandwas the nearer land, or he may have returned to Cuba, but more to thenorth than were we. He looked for the _Pinta_. Again in a reasonabletime. In the meantime let it alone! So soon as the sea allowed, Vicente Pinzon came in his boat to the SantaMaria, but he seemed as perplexed as we. He did not know his brother'smind. But Martin Pinzon forever and always was a good sea captain anda Castilian of his word, knowing what was proper observance to hisAdmiral. If he did this or that, it would be for good reasons. SoVicente, and the Admiral was cordial with him, and saw him over railand down side with cheerful words. He was cheerful all that day in hisspeech, cheerful and suave and prophesying good in many directions. ButI knew the trouble behind that front. In some ways the _Pinta_ was the best of our ships. Martin Pinzon was abold and ready man, and those aboard with him devoted to his fortunes. He did not lack opinions of his own, and often they countered theAdmiral's. He was ambitious, and the Admiral's rights were so vast andinclusive that there seemed not much room to make name and fame. Muchthe same with riches! What Martin Pinzon had loaned would come backto him beyond doubt, back with high interest and a good deal more. Butstill it would seem to him that room was needed. In his mind he had saidperhaps many times to the Admiral, "Do not claim too much soil! Do notforget that other trees want to grow!" Martin Pinzon might have put back to Spain, but who knew the manwould not think that likely. Far more probable that he might be doingdiscovery of his own. Perhaps he would rejoin us later with somesplendid thing to his credit, claim that Spain could not deny! Cuba coast rose high and near. It is a shore of the fairest harbors! Wemade one of these into which emptied a little river. He named haven andriver Saint Catherine. In the bed of this stream, when we went ashore, we found no little gold. He took in his hand grains and flakes and oneor two pieces large as beans. It was royal monopoly, gold, and every manunder strict command--to bring to the Admiral all that was found. Seamenand companions gathered around him, Admiral, Viceroy and Governor, KingCroesus to be, a tenth of all gold and spoil filling his purse! Andthey, too, surely some way they would be largely paid! The dreamhovered, then descended upon us, as many a time it descended. Greatriches and happiness and all clothed in silk, and every man as he wouldbe and not as he was, a dim magnificence and a sense of trumpets in theair, acclaiming us! I remember that day that we all felt this mysticpower and wealth, the Admiral and all of us. For a short time, there bySaint Catherine's River, we were brought into harmony. Then it broke andeach little self went its way again. But for that while eighty men hadfelt as though we were a country and more than a country. The gold inthe Admiral's hand might have been gold of consciousness. After this day for days we sailed along Cuba strand, seeing many a fairhaven and entering two or three. There were villages, and those dusk, naked folk to whom by now we were well used, running to beach or cliffbrow, making signs, seeming to cry, "Heaven come down, heaven, heavenand the gods!" The notion of a sail had never come to them, though withtheir cotton they might have made them. They were slow to learn thatthe wind pushed us, acting like a thousand tireless rowers. We werethrillingly new to them and altogether magical. To any seeing eye a shipunder full sail is a beautiful, stately, thrilling thing! To these redmen there was a perilous joy in the vision. If to us in the ships therehung in this voyage something mystic, hidden, full of possibility, inch by inch to unroll, throbbing all with the future which is thesupernatural, be sure these, too, who were found and discovered, movedin a cloud of mystery torn by strange lightnings! Sometimes we came into haven, dropped anchor and lowered sails, whereupon those on the shore again cried out. When we took our boatsand went to land we met always the same reception, found much the samevillage, carried on much the same conversations. Little by little wecollected gold. By now, within the Admiral's chest, in canvas bags, rested not a little treasure for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Andthough it was forbidden, I knew that many of our seamen hid gold. Alltold we found enough to whet appetite. But still the Indians said south, and Babeque and Bohio! At last we had sailed to the very eastern end of Cuba and turned it aswe might turn the heel of Italy. A great spur that ran into the oceanthe Admiral dubbed Alpha and Omega, and we planted a cross. It fell to me here to save the Admiral's life. We had upon the _Santa Maria_ a man named Felipe who seemed a simple, God-fearing soul, very attentive to Fray Ignatio and all the offices ofreligion. He was rather a silent fellow and a slow, poor worker, oftenin trouble with boatswain and master. He said odd things and sometimeswept for his soul, and the forecastle laughed at him. This man became ina night mad. It was middle night. The _Santa Maria_ swung at anchor and the wholeworld seemed a just-breathing stillness. There was the watch, but allelse slept. The watch, looking at Cuba and the moon on the water, didnot observe Felipe when he crept from forecastle with a long, sharptwo-edged knife such as they sell in Toledo. Juan Lepe woke from first sleep and could not recover it. He foundBernardo Nunez's small, small cabin stifling, and at last he got up, puton garments, and slipped forth and through great cabin to outer air. Hemight have found the Admiral there before him, for he slept little andwas about the ship at all hours, but to-night he did sleep. I spoke to the watch, then set myself down at break of poop to breathethe splendor of the night. The moon bathed Alpha and Omega, and the twoships, the _Nina_ and the Santa Maria. It washed the Pinta but we sawit not, not knowing where rode the Pinta and Martin Alonzo Pinzon. Sobright, so pleasureable, was the night! An hour passed. My body was cooled and refreshed, my spirit quiet. Rising, I entered great cabin on my way to bed and sleep. I felt thatthe cabin was not empty, and then, there being moonlight enough, Isaw the figure by the Admiral's door. "Who is it?" I demanded, but theunbolted door gave to the man's push, and he disappeared. I knew it wasnot the Admiral and I followed at a bound. The cabin had a window andthe moonbeams came in. They showed Felipe and his knife and the greatGenoese asleep. The madman laughed and crooned, then lifted that Toledodagger and lunged downward with a sinewy arm. But I was upon him. Theblow fell, but a foot wide of mark. There was a struggle, a shout. TheAdmiral, opening eyes, sprang from bed. He was a powerful man, and I, too, had strength, but Felipe fought andstruggled like a desert lion. He kept crying, "I am the King! I willsend him to discover Heaven! I will send him to join the prophets!" Atlast we had him down and bound him. By now the noise had brought thewatch and others. A dozen men came crowding in, in the moonlight. Wetook the madman away and kept him fast, and Juan Lepe tried to curehim but could not. In three days he died and we buried him at sea. AndFernando, creeping to me, asked, "senor, don't you feel at times thatthere is madness over all this ship and this voyage and _him_--theAdmiral, I mean?" I answered him that it was a pity there were so few madmen, and thatFelipe must have been quite sane. "Then what do you think was the matter with Felipe, Senor?" I said, "Did it ever occur to you, Fernando, that you had too muchcourage and saw too far?" At which he looked frightened, and said thatat times he had felt those symptoms. CHAPTER XXI MARTIN PINZON did not return to us. That tall, blond sea captain wasgone we knew not where. The _Santa Maria_ and the Nina sailed southalong the foot of Cuba. But now rose out of ocean on our southeastquarter a great island with fair mountain shapes. We asked ourIndians--we had five aboard beside Diego Colon--what it was. "Bohio!Bohio!" But when we came there, its own inhabitants called it Hayti andQuisquaya. The Admiral paced our deck, small as a turret chamber, his hands behindhim, his mind upon some great chart drawn within, not without. At last, having decided, he called Juan de la Cosa. "We will go to Bohio. " So it was done whereby much was done, the Woman with the distaffspinning fast, fast! As this island lifted out of ocean, we who had said of Cuba, "It is thefairest!" now said, "No, this is the fairest!" It was most beautiful, with mountains and forests and vales and plains and rivers. The twelfth day of December we came to anchor in a harbor which theAdmiral named Concepcion. On this shore the Indians fled from us. We found a village, but quitedeserted. Not a woman, not a man, not a child! Only three or four ofthose silent dogs, and a great red and green parrot that screamed butsaid nothing. There was something in this day, I know not what, but itmade itself felt. The Admiral, kneeling, kissed the soil, and he namedthe island Hispaniola, and we planted a cross. For long we had been beaten about, and all aboard the ships were wellwilling to leave them for a little. We had a dozen sick and they cravedthe shore and the fruit trees. Our Indians, too, longed. So we anchored, and mariners and all adventurers rested from the sea. A few at a time, the villagers returned, and fearfully enough at first. But we had harmednothing, and what greatness and gentleness was in us we showed it here. Presently all thought they were at home with us, and that heaven bredthe finest folk! Our people of Hispaniola, subjects now, since the planting of the flag, were taller, handsomer, we thought, than the Cubans, and more advancedin the arts. Their houses were neat and good, and their gardens weededand well-stocked. The men wore loin cloths, the women a wide cottongirdle or little skirt. We found three or four copper knives, but againthey said that they came from the south. As in Spain "west--west" hadbeen his word, so now the Admiral brooded upon south. These folk had a very little gold, but they seemed to say that theirswas a simple and poor village, and that we should find more of allthings farther on. So we left Concepcion, the cross upon the rockshowing a long way through the pure air. For two days we coasted, and at the end of this time we came to a harborof great beauty and back from it ran a vale like Paradise, so richlysweet it was! Christopherus Columbus was quick to find beauty and lovedit when found. Often and often have I seen his face turn that of a childor a youth, filled with wonder. I have seen him kiss a flower, lay acaress upon stem of tree, yearn toward palm tops against the blue. Hewas well read in the old poets, and he himself was a poet though hewrote no line of verse. We entered here and came to anchor and the sails rattled down. "Hispaniola--Hispaniola, and we will call this harbor St. Thomas! Hewas the Apostle to India. And now we are his younger brothers come afterlong folding away. Were we more--did we have a fleet--we might set acity here and, it being Christmas, call it La Navidad!" Out came thecanoes to us, out the swimmers, dark and graceful figures cleaving theutter blue. Some one passing that way overland, hurrying with news, hadtold these villages how peaceful, noble, benevolent, beneficent we were. The canoes were heaped with fruit and cassava bread, and they hadcotton, not in balls, but woven in pieces. And these Indians had aboutneck or in ear some bits of gold. These they changed cheerfully, takingand valuing what trifle was given. "Gold. Where do you get your gold? Doyou know of Cipango or Cathay or India? Have ever you heard of Zaiton, or of Quinsai and Cublai Khan?" They gave us answers which we could notfully understand, and gestured inland and a little to the east. "Cibao!Cibao!" They seemed to say that there was all the gold there that areasonable mortal might desire. "Cibao?--Cipango?" said the Admiral. "They might be the same. " "Like Cuba and Cublai Khan, " thought Juan Lepe. Around a point of shore darted a long canoe with many rowers. Othercanoes gave way for it, and the Indians already upon the _Santa Maria_exclaimed that it was the boat of the cacique, though not the caciquebut his brother sat in it. Guacanagari was the cacique. His town wasyonder! They pointed to a misty headland beyond St. Thomas's bay. The Indian from the great canoe came aboard, a handsome fellow, and hebrought presents not like any we had seen. There was a width of cottonembroidered thick with bits of gleaming shell and bone, but what wasmost welcome was a huge wooden mask with eyes and tongue of gold. FrayIgnatio crossed himself. "The devil they worship, --poor lost sheep!"The third gift was a considerable piece of that mixed and imperfect goldwhich afterwards we called guanin. And would we go to visit the caciquewhose town was not so far yonder? It was Christmas Eve. We sailed with a small, small wind for thecacique's village, out from harbor of St. Thomas, around a headland andalong a low, bright green shore. So low and fitful was the wind that wemoved like two great snails. Better to have left the ships and gone, somany of us, in our boats with oars, canoes convoying us! The distancewas not great, but distance is as the power of going. "I remember, "quoth the Admiral, "a calm, going from the Levant to Crete, and ourwater cask broken and not a mouthful for a soul aboard! That was a long, long two days while the one shore went no further and the other cameno nearer. And going once to Porto Santo with my wife she fell illand moaned for the land, and we were held as by the sea bottom, and Ithought she would die who might be saved if she could have the land. AndI remember going down the African coast with Santanem--" Diego de Arana said, "You have had a full life, senor!" He was cousin, I had been told, to that Dona Beatrix whom the Admiralcherished, mother of his youngest son, Fernando. The Admiral hadaffection for him, and Diego de Arana lived and died, a good, loyalman. "A full outward life, " he went on, "and I dare swear, a full inwardone!" "That is God's truth!" said the Admiral. "You may well say that, senor!Inside I have lived with all who have lived, and discovered with all whohave discovered!" I remember as a dream this last day upon the _Santa Maria_. Beltran thecook had scalded his arm. I dressed it each day, and dressing it now, half a dozen idling by, watching the operation, I heard again a kind oftalk that I had heard before. Partly because I had shipped as Juan Lepean Andalusian sailor and had had my forecastle days, and partly becausemen rarely fear to speak to a physician, and partly because in thegreat whole there existed liking between them and me, they talked anddiscussed freely enough what any other from the other end of ship couldhave come at only by formal questioning. Now many of the seamen wantedto know when we were returning to Palos, and another number said thatthey would just as soon never return, or at least not for a good while!But they did not wish to spend that good while upon the ship. It was agood land, and the heathen also good. The heathen might all be going toburn in hell, unless Fray Ignatio could get them baptized in time, andso numerous were they that seemed hardly possible! Almost all might haveto go to hell. But in the meantime, here on earth, they had their uses, and one could even grow fond of them--certainly fond of the women. Theheathen were eager to work for us, catch us coneys, bring us gold, puthammocks for us between trees and say "Sleep, senor, sleep!" Here evenTomaso Passamonte was "senor" and "Don. " And as for the women--only theskin is dark--they were warm-hearted! Gold and women and never any coldnor hunger nor toil! The heathen to toil for you--and they could betaught to make wine, with all these grapes dangling everywhere? Heathencould do the gathering and pressing, and also the gold hunting in rocksand streams. Spain would furnish the mind and the habit of command. Itwere well to stay and cultivate Hispaniola! The Admiral and those whowanted to might take home the ships. Of course the Admiral would comeagain, and with him ships and many men. No one wanted, of course, neverto see again Castile and Palos and his family! But to stay in Hispaniolaa while and rest and grow rich, --that was what they wanted. And no onecould justly call them idle! If they found out all about the land andwhere were the gold and the spices, was there not use in that, just asmuch use as wandering forever on the _Santa Maria_? Mother earth was kind, kind, here, and she didn't have a rod like mothercountry and Mother Church! They did not say this last, but it was whatthey meant. "You don't see the rod, that is all, " said Juan Lepe. But there had eventually to be colonies, and I knew that the Admiral wasrevolving in his head the leaving in this new world certain of our men, seed corn as it were, organs also to gather knowledge against hisspeedy return with power of ships and men. For surely Spain would begrateful, --surely, surely! But he was not ready yet to set sail forSpain. He meant to discover more, discover further, come if by any meanshe could to the actual wealth of great, main India; come perhaps toZaiton, where are more merchants than in all the rest of the world, anda hundred master ships laden with pepper enter every year; or to Quinsaiof the marble bridges. No, he was not ready to turn prow to Spain, andhe was not likely to bleed himself of men, now or for many days to come. All these who would lie in hammocks ashore must wait awhile, and evenwhen they made their colony, that is not the way that colonies live andgrow. Beltran said, "Some of you would like to do a little good, and some arefor a sow's life!" It was Christmas Eve, and we had our vespers, and we thought of the dayat home in Castile and in Italy. Dusk drew down. Behind us was the deep, secure water of St. Thomas, his harbor. The Admiral had us sound andthe lead showed no great depth, whereupon we stood a little out to avoidshoal or bar. For some nights the Admiral had been wakeful, suffering, as Juan Lepeknew, with that gout which at times troubled him like a very demon. Butthis night he slept. Juan de la Cosa set the watch. The helmsman wasSancho Ruiz than whom none was better, save only that he would take arisk when he pleased. All others slept. The day had been long, so warm, still and idle, with the wooded shore stealing so slowly by. Early in the night Sancho Ruiz was taken with a great cramp and aswimming of the head. He called to one of the watch to come take thehelm for a little, but none answered; called again and a ship boysleeping near, uncurled himself, stretched, and came to hand. "It's allsafe, and the Admiral sleeping and the master sleeping and the watchalso!" said the boy. Pedro Acevedo it was, a well-enough meaning youngwretch. Sancho Ruiz put helm in his hand. "Keep her so, while I lie down herefor a little. My head is moving faster than the _Santa Maria_!" He lay down, and the swimming made him close his eyes, and closed eyesand the disappearance of his pain, and pleasant resting on deck causedhim to sleep. Pedro Acevedo held the wheel and looked at the moon. Thenthe wind chose to change, blowing still very lightly but bearing us nowtoward shore, and Pedro never noticing this grow larger. He was lookingat the moon, he afterwards said with tears, and thinking of Christ bornin Bethlehem. The shore came nearer and nearer. Sancho Ruiz slept. Pedro now heard asound that he knew well enough. Coming back to here and now, he lookedand saw breakers upon a long sand bar. The making tide was at half, andthat and the changed wind carried us toward the lines of foam. The boycried, "Steersman! Steersman!" Ruiz sat up, holding his head in hishands. "Such a roaring in my ears!" But "Breakers! Breakers!" cried theboy. "Take the helm!" Ruiz sprang to it, but as he touched it the _Santa Maria_ grounded. The shock woke most on board, the immediate outcry and running feet therest. The harm was done, and no good now in recriminations! It was never, Ibear witness, habit of Christopherus Columbus. The Santa Maria listed heavily, the sea pounding against her, drivingher more and more upon the sand. But order arrived with the Admiral. Themaster grew his lieutenant, the mariners his obedient ones. Back he wasat thirty, with a shipwreck who had seen many and knew how to toil withhands and with head. Moreover, the great genius of the man shone indarkness. He could encourage; he could bring coolness. We tried to warp her off, but it was not to be done. We cut away mastto lighten her, but more and more she grew fast to the bank, the wavesstriking all her side, pushing her over. Seams had opened, water wascoming in. The _Nina_ a mile away took our signal and came nearer, layto, and sent her boat. The Santa Maria, it was seen, was dying. Nothing more was to be done. Her mariners could only cling to her like bees to comb. We got thetwo boats clear and there was the boat of the Nina. Missioned by theAdmiral, Juan Lepe got somehow into cabin, together with Sancho and LuisTorres, and we collected maps and charts, log, journal, box withroyal letters and the small bags of gold, and the Admiral's personalbelongings, putting all into a great sack and caring for it, until uponthe _Nina_ we gave it into his hand. Above us rang the cry, "All off!" From Christopherus Columbus to Pedro Acevedo all left the Santa Mariaand were received by the Nina. Crowded, crowded was the Nina! Downvoyaged the moon, up came with freshness the rose-chapleted dawn. Awreck lay the Santa Maria, painted against the east, about her a lowthunder of breakers. Where was the _Pinta_ no man knew! Perhaps halfwayback to Spain or perhaps wrecked and drowned like the flagship. TheNina, a small, small ship and none too seaworthy, carried all of Europeand Discovery. CHAPTER XXII IN the small, small cabin of the _Nina_ Christopherus Columbus sat for atime with his head bowed in his arms, then rose and made up a mission togo to the cacique Guacanagari and, relating our misfortune, request aidand shelter until we had determined upon our course. There went Diego deArana and Pedro Gutierrez with Luis Torres and one or two more, and theytook Diego Colon and the two St. Thomas Indians. It was now full light, the shore and mountains green as emerald, the water its old unearthlyblue. The _Nina_ swung at anchor just under the land and the now receding tideuncovered more and more those sands where the Santa Maria lay huddledand dying. The Admiral gazed, and the tears ran down his face. He was sogreat that he never thought to hide just emotion. He spoke as though tohimself. "Many sins have I, many, many! But thou wilt not, O God, castme utterly away because of them! I will not doubt Thee, nor my calling!" There was little space about him. The _Nina_ seemed to quiver, packedand dark with men. His deep voice went on, and they could hear him, buthe did not seem to know that they were there. "As though upon a raft, here a thousand leagues in Ocean-Sea! Yet wilt Thou care for thy GoodNews. I will come to Spain, and I will tell it. Chosen, and almost byvery name pointed out in Thy Book! The first Christian shore that Itouch I will walk barefoot and in my shirt at the head of twelve to thefirst shrine. And, O my Lord, never more will I forget that that tomb inwhich thou didst rest, still, still is held by the infidel!" He beat hisbreast. "_Mea culpa! mea culpa!_" His voice sank, he looked at the sky, then with a turn of the wristat the wheel he put that by and became again the vigilant Admiral of afleet of one. "She will hold together yet a while! When the tide is out, we can get to her and empty her. Take all ashore that can be carried orfloated and may be of use. Up and down--down and up!" The inhabitants of Hispaniola were now about us in canoes or swimming. They seemed to cry out in distress and sympathy, gazing at the _SantaMaria_ as though it were a god dying there. Their own canoes were livingthings to them as is any ship to a mariner, and by analogy our greatcanoe was a Being dying, more of a Being than theirs, because it hadwings and could open and fold them. And then back came our boat withDiego de Arana and the others, and they had with them that same brotherof the cacique who had come to us in St. Thomas Harbor. And had we beenwrecked off Palos, not Palos could have showed more concern or been moreready to help than were these men. We had three boats and the Indian canoes and hands enough, white andcopper-hued. Now at low tide, we could approach and enter the _SantaMaria_. A great breach had been made and water was deep in her hold, butwe could get at much of casks and chests, and could take away sailsand cordage, even her two cannon. Eventually, as she broke up, we mightfloat away to shore much of her timber. When I looked from the wreck tothe little Nina, I could see, limned as it were in air, the Viceroy'sfirst colony, set in Hispaniola, beside Guacanagari's town. AllChristmas day we toiled and the Indians at our side. We found themready, not without skill, gay and biddable. Toward sunset came Guacanagari. All the little shore was strewn andheaped with our matters. And here I will say that no Indian stole thatday though he might have stolen, and though our possessions seemed tohim great wonders and treasure beyond estimation. What was brought fromthe _Santa Maria_ lay in heaps and our men came and went. The most ofour force was ashore or in the boats; only so many on the Nina. TheAdmiral, just returned to the ship, stretched himself upon the bench inher small cabin. Powerful was his frame and constitution, and powerfullytried all his life with a thousand strains and buffetings! It seemedstill to hold; he looked a muscular, sinewy, strong and ruddy man. Butthere were signs that a careful eye might find. He lay upon the bench inthe cabin and I, who was his physician, brought him wine and biscuitand made him eat and drink who, I knew, had not touched food since theevening before; after which I told him to close eyes and go away toGenoa and boyhood. He shut them, and I sitting near brought my will asbest I could to the quieting of all heavy and sorrowful waves. But then the cacique came. So small was the _Nina_ that we could hearwell enough the word of his arrival. The Admiral opened his eyes and satstiffly up. He groaned and took his head into his hands, then droppedthese and with a shake of his shoulders resumed command. So many andgrievous a sea had dashed over him and retreated and he had stood! Whathe said now was, "The tide of the spirit goes out; the tide comes backin. Let it come back a spring tide!" Guacanagari entered. This cacique, whose fortunes now began to beintertwined with ours, had his likeness, so far as went state andcustom, to that Cuban chieftain whom Luis Torres and I had visited. But this was an easier, less strongly fibred person, a big, amiable, indolent man with some quality of a great dog who, accepting you andbecoming your friend, may never be estranged. He was brave after hisfashion, gifted enough in simple things. In Europe he would have beenan easy, well-liked prince or duke of no great territory. He kept asimple state, wore some slight apparel of cotton and a golden necklet. He brought gifts and an unfeigned sympathy for that death upon the sandbar. He and the Admiral sat and talked together. "Gods fromheaven?"--"Christian men and from Europe, " and we could not make him, at this time, understand that that was not the same thing. We beganto comprehend that "heaven" was a word of many levels, and that theyascribed to it everything that they chose to consider good and that wasmanifestly out of the range of their experience. In his turn the Admiral was ready for all that Guacanagari could tellhim. "Gold?" His eyes were upon the Indian's necklet. Removing it, thecacique laid it in the god's hand. All Indians now understood thatwe made high magic with gold, getting out of it virtues beyond theircomprehension. In return the Admiral gave him a small brazen gong andhammer. "Where did they get the gold?" Again like the Cuban chief thiscacique waved his hand to the mountains. "Cibao!" and then turning hetoo pointed to the south. "Much gold there, " said Diego Colon. "Inland, in the mountains, " quoth the Admiral, "and evidently, in very greatquantity, in some land to the south! This is not Cipango, but I thinkthat Cipango lies to the south. " He asked who ruled Hayti that we calledHispaniola. We understood that there were a number of caciques, but thatfor a day's journey every way it was Guacanagari's country. "A cacique who ruled them all?" No, there was no such thing. "Had ships like ours and clothed men ever before come to them?" No, never! But then he seemed to say that there was undoubtedly atradition. Gods had come, and would come again, and when they did sogreat things would follow! But no cacique nor priest nor any knew whenthe gods had come. The Admiral made some question of Caribs. Again there was gesturesouthward, though it seemed to us that something was said of folk withinthis great island who were at least like Caribs. And where was themost gold and the greatest other wealth that they knew of? Again south, though this time we thought it rather south by west. The Admiral sighed, and spoke of Cuba. Yes, Guacanagari knew of Cuba. Had it end far yonderto the westward, or no end? Had any one ever come to its end? Thecacique thought not, or knew not and assumed deliberation. Luis andI agreed that we had not met among these Indians any true notion ofa continent. To them Hayti was vast, Cuba was vast, the lands of theCaribs, wherever they were, were vast, and vast whatever other islandsthere might be. To them this was the _OEcumene_, the inhabited andinhabitable world, Europe--Asia--Africa? Their faces stayed blank. Werethese divisions of heaven? Guacanagari would entertain and succor us. This canoe--oh, the hugemarvel!--was too crowded! Yonder lay his town. All the houses that wemight want were ours, all the hammocks, all the food. And he would feastthe gods. That had been preparing since yesterday, A feast with dancing. He hoped the great cacique and his people from far nearer heaven thanwas Guacanagari would live as long as might be in his town. Guarico washis town. A big, easy, amiable, likeable man, he sat in nakedness onlynot utter, save for that much like a big hidalgo offering sympathy andshelter to some fire-ousted or foe-ousted prince! As for the part ofprince it was not hard for the Admiral to play it. He was one naturally. He thanked the cacique to whom, I could see, he had taken liking. Sevenhouses would be enough. To-night some of us would sleep upon the beachbeside the heaped goods. To-morrow we would visit Guacanapri. Thebig, lazy, peaceable man expressed his pleasure, then with a wide anddignified gesture dismissing all that, asked to be shown marvels. CHAPTER XXIII GUACANAGARI'S town was much perhaps as was Goth town, Frank town, Saxontown, Latin town, sufficient time ago. As for clothed and unclothed, that may be to some degree a matter of cold or warm weather. We had notseen that ever it was cold in this land. Guacanagari feasted us with great dignity and earnestness, for he andhis people held it a momentous thing our coming here, our being here. Utias we had and iguana, fish, cassava bread, potato, many a deliciousfruit, and that mild drink that they made. And we had calabashes, trenchers and fingers, stone knives with which certain officers of thefeast decorously divided the meat, small gourds for cups, water forcleansing, napkins of broad leaves. It was a great and comely feast. Butbefore the feast, as in Cuba, the dance. I should say that three hundred young men and maidens danced. Theyadvanced, they retreated, they cowered, they pressed forward. They madesupplication, arms to heaven or forehead to ground, they received, theywere grateful, they circled fast in ease of mind, they hungered againand were filled again, they flowed together, they made a great square, chanting proudly! Fray Ignatio beside me glowered, so far as so good a man couldglower. But Juan Lepe said, "It is doubt and difficulty, approach, reconciliation, holy triumph! They are acting out long pilgrimages andarrivals at sacred cities and hopes for greater cities. It is much thesame as in Seville or Rome!" Whereupon he looked at me in astonishment, and Jayme de Marchena said to Juan Lepe, "Hold thy tongue!" Dance and the feast over, it became the Admiral's turn. He was set notto seem dejected, not to give any Spaniard nor any Indian reason to say, "This Genoese--or this god--does not sustain misfortune!" But hesat calm, pleased with all; brotherly, fatherly, by that big, easy, contented cacique. Now he would furnish the entertainment! Among uswe had one Diego Minas, a huge man and as mighty a bowman as any inFlanders or England. Him the Admiral now put forward with his greatcrossbow and long arrows. A stir ran around. "Carib! Carib!" We made outthat those mysterious Caribs had bows and arrows, though not great oneslike this. Guacanagari employed gestures and words that Luis Torres andI strove to understand. We gathered that several times in the memory ofman the Caribs had come in many canoes, warred dreadfully, killedand taken away. More than that, somewhere in Hayti or Quisquaya orHispaniola were certain people who knew the weapon. "Caonabo!" Herepeated the name with respect and disliking. "Caonabo, Caonabo!"Perhaps the Caribs had made a settlement. Diego fastened a leaf upon the bark of a tree and from a great distancetransfixed it with an arrow, then in succession sent four others againstthe trunk, making precisely the form of a cross. The Indians cried, "Hai! Hai!" But when the four harquebus men set up their iron rests, fixed the harquebuses, and firing cut leaves and twigs from the sametree, there was a louder crying. And when there was dragged forth, charged with powder and fired, one of the lombards taken from the _SantaMaria_, wider yet sprang the commotion. Pedro Gutierrez and a youngcavalier from the _Nina_ deigned to show lance play, and Vicente Pinzonwho had served against the Moors took a great sword and with it carvedcalabashes and severed green boughs. The sword was very marvelous tothem. We might have danced for them for Spain knows how to dance, or wemight have sung for them, for our mariners sing at sea. But these werenot the superior things we wished to show them. Guacanagari, big and easy and gentle, said, "Live here, you who are sogreat and good! We will take you into the people. We shall be brothers. "We understood them that the great white heron was their guardian spiritand would be ours. I said, "They do not think of it as just thosestalking, stilly standing birds! It is a name for something hovering, brooding, caring for them. " The Viceroy spoke with energy. "Tell them of Father, Son and HolyGhost!" Fray Ignatio stood and spoke, gentle and plain. Diego Colon made whatheadway he could. Guacanagari listened, attentive. The Franciscan had acertainty that presently he might begin to baptize. His face glowed. Iheard him say to the Admiral, "If it be possible, senor, leave mehere when you return to Spain! I will convert this chief and all hispeople--by the time you come again there shall be a church!" "Let me ponder it yet a while, " answered the other. He was thoughtful when he went back to the _Nina_. Vicente Pinzon, too, was anxious for light. "This ship is crowded to sinking! If we meetwretched weather, or if sickness break out, returning, we shall bein bad case!" Roderigo Sanchez also had his word. "Is it not veryimportant, senor, that we should get the tidings to the Sovereigns? Andwe have now just this one small ship, and so far to go, and all mannerof dangers!" "Aye, it is important!" said the Admiral. "Let me think it out, senor. " He had not slept at all, thought Juan Lepe, when next morning he cameamong us. But he looked resolved, hardy to accomplish. He had his plan, and he gave it to us in his deep voice that always thrilled with muchbeside the momentary utterance. We would build a fort here on shore, hard by this village, felling wood for it and using also the timbersof the _Santa Maria_. We would mount there her two guns and provide anarsenal with powder, shot, harquebuses and bows. Build a fort and callit La Navidad, because of Christmas day when was the wreck. It shouldhave a garrison of certainly thirty men, a man for each year of OurLord's life when He began his mission. So many placed in Hispaniolawould much lighten the _Nina_, which indeed must be lightened in orderwith safety to recross Ocean-Sea. For yes, we would go back to Palos!Go, and come again with many and better ships, with hidalgos andmissionary priests, and very many men! In the meantime so many shouldstay at La Navidad. "In less than a year--much less, I promise it--I the Admiral will behere again at La Navidad, when will come happy greeting between brothersin the greatest service of our own or many ages! Sea and land, God willkeep us so long as we are His!" All loved Christopherus Columbus that day. None was to be forced tostay at La Navidad. It was easy to gain thirty; in the end there tarriedthirty-eight. The building of the fort became a pleasurable enterprise. We brokeup with singing the Santa Maria, and with her bones built the walls. Guacanagari and his people helped. All was hurried. The Admiral andViceroy, now that his mind was made up, would depart as soon as mightbe. We built La Navidad where it might view the sea, upon a hillside abovea brown river sliding out to ocean. Beyond the stream, in the groves, aquarter-league away, stood the hundred huts of Guarico. We built a towerand storehouse and wall of wood and we digged around all some kind ofmoat, and mounted three lombards. All that we could lift from the SantaMaria and what the _Nina_ could spare us of arms, conveniences and foodwent into our arsenal and storehouse. We had a bubbling spring withinthe enclosure. When all was done the tower of La Navidad, though aninfant beside towers of Europe, might suffice for the first here of itsbrood. It was done in a week from that shipwreck. Who was to be left at La Navidad? Leave was given to volunteer and themariners' list was soon made up, good men and not so good. From the poopthere volunteered Pedro Gutierrez and Roderigo de Escobedo. The Admiraldid not block their wish, but he gave the command not to Escobedo whowished it, but to Diego de Arana whom he named to stay, having persuadedhim who would rather have returned with the _Nina_. But he couldtrust Diego de Arana, and, with reason, he was not sure of those otherhidalgos. De Arana stayed and fulfilled his trust, and died a brave man. Fray Ignatio would stay. "Bring me back, Senor, a goodly bell for thechurch of La Navidad! A bell and a font. " Juan Lepe would stay. There needed a physician. But also Jayme deMarchena would stay. He thought it out. Six months had not abolished theHoly Office nor converted to gentleness Don Pedro nor the Dominican. But the Admiral had assigned me to return with the _Nina_. I told him inthe evening between the sunset and the moonrise what was the difficulty. He was a man profoundly religious, and also a docile son of the Church. But I knew him, and I knew that he would find reasons in the Bible fornot giving me up. The deep man, the whole man, was not in the grasp ofbishop or inquisitor or papal bull. He agreed. "Aye, it is wiser! I count two months to Spain, seeing thatwe may not have so favorable a voyage. Three or maybe four there, forour welcome at court, and for the gathering a fleet--easy now to gatherfor all will flock to it, and masters and owners cry, 'Take my ship--andmine!' Two months again to recross. Look for me it may be in July, itmay be in August, it may be in September!" The Viceroy spoke to us, gathered by our fort, under the banner ofCastile, with behind us on hill brow a cross gleaming. Again, all thatwe had done for the world and might further do! Again, we returning onthe _Nina_ or we remaining at La Navidad were as crusaders, knights ofthe Order of the Purpose of God! "Cherish good--oh, men of the sea andthe land, cherish good! Who betrays here betrays almost as Judas! ThePurpose of God is Strength with Wisdom and Charity which only can makejoy! Therefore be ye here at La Navidad strong, wise and charitable!" He said more, and he gave many an explicit direction, but that was thegist of all. Strength, wisdom and charity. Likewise he spoke to the Indians and they listened and promisedand meant good. An affection had sprung between Guacanagari andChristopherus Columbus. So different they looked! and yet in the breastof each dwelled much guilelessness and the ability to wonder and revere. The Viceroy saw in this big, docile ruler of Guarico however far thatmight extend, one who would presently be baptized and become a Christianchief, man of the Viceroy of Hispaniola, as the latter was man of theSovereigns of Spain. All his people would follow Guacanagari. He sawChristendom here in the west, and a great feudal society, acknowledgingCastile for overlord, and Alexander the Sixth as its spiritual ruler. Guacanagari may have seen friends in the gods, and especially in thistheir cacique, who with others that they would bring, would be drawninto Guarico and made one and whole with the people of the heron. Buthe never saw Guacanagari displanted--never saw Europe armed and warlike, hungry and thirsty. The _Nina_ and La Navidad bade with tears each the other farewell. Itwas the second of January, fourteen hundred and ninety-three. We hadmass under the palm trees, by the cross, above the fort. Fray Ignatioblessed the going, blessed the staying. We embraced, we loved oneanother, we parted. The _Nina_ was so small a ship, even there justbefore us on the blue water! So soon, so soon, the wind blowing from theland, she was smaller yet, smaller, smaller, a cock boat, a chip, gone! Thirty-eight white men watched her from the hill above the fort, andof the thirty-eight Juan Lepe was the only one who saw the Admiral comeagain. CHAPTER XXIV THE butio of this town had been absent for some reason in the great woodthose days of the shipwreck and the building of La Navidad. Now he wasagain here, and I consorted with him and chiefly from him learned theirlanguage. The Admiral had taken Diego Colon to Spain, and to Spain wasgone too Luis Torres, swearing that he would come again. To Spain wasgone Sancho, but Beltran the cook stayed with us. Pedro and Fernandoalso. Time passed. With the ending of January the heat increased. The butioknew all manner of simples; he was doctor and priest together. He hada very simple magic. He himself did not expect it to reach the GreatSpirit, but it might affect the innumerable _zemes_ or under andunder-under spirits. These barbarians, using other words for them, hadletter-notion of gnome, sylph, undine and salamander. All things livedand took offense or became propitious. Effort consisted in making thempropitious. If the effort was too great one of them killed you. Thenyou went to the shadowy caves. There was a paradise, too, beautiful andeasy. But the Great Spirit could not be hurt and had no wish to hurt anyone else, whether _zemes_ or men. To live with the Great Spirit, thatwas really the Heron wish, though the little herons could not always seeit. This butio--Guarin his name--was a young man with eyes that could burnand voice that fell naturally into a chant. He took me into the forestwith him to look for a very rare tree. When it was found I watched himgather plants from beneath it and scrape bits off its bark into a smallcalabash. I understood that it was good for fever, and later I borrowedfrom him and found that he had grounds for what he said. La Navidad and Guarico neighbored each other. The Indians came freely tothe fort, but Diego de Arana made a good _alcayde_ and he would nothave mere crowding within our wooden wall. Half of our thirty-eight, permitted at a time to wander, could not crowd Guarico. But in himselfeach Spaniard seemed a giant. At first a good giant, profoundlyinteresting. But I was to see pleased interest become a painfulinterest. Women. The first complaint arose about the gods or the giants and women. Guacanagari came to La Navidad with Guarin and several old men hiscouncilors. Diego de Arana received them and there was talk under thegreat tree within our gate. Then all the garrison was drawn up, and inthe presence of the cacique Arana gave rebuke and command, and the twothat had done the outrage had prison for a week. It was our first plainshowing in this world that heaven-people or Europeans could differ amongthemselves as to right and wrong, could quarrel, upbraid and punish. Buthere was evidently good and bad. And what might be the proportion? Asdays went by the question gathered in this people's bosom. It was not that their women stood aloof from our men. Many did not soin the least! But it was to be free will and actual fondness, and inmeasure. --But there were those among us who, finding in lonely places, took by force. These became hated. Diego de Arana was to collect the gold that was a royal monopoly. Trading for gold for one's self was forbidden. Assuredly taking it byforce--assuredly all robbery of that or anything else--was forbidden. But there came a robbery, and since it was resisted, murder followed. This was a league from Guarico and from La Navidad. The slain Indian'scompanion escaping, told. This time Diego de Arana went to Guarico and Guacanagari. He took withhim a rich present, and he showed how the guilty men were punished. "Youdo not slay them?" asked Guacanagari. Arana shook his head. He thoughtwe were too few in this land to be ridding of life the violent andlustful. But the Indians seemed to think that he said that he couldnot. They still doubted, I think, our mortality. As yet they had seen nomighty stranger bleed or die. Arana would have kept his garrison within the walls. But indeed itwas not healthful for them there, and at the very word of confinementfaction rose. There were now two parties in La Navidad, the Commandant'sparty and Escobedo's party. The heat increased. It was now March. An illness fell among us. I tookGuarin into counsel and gave in water the bitter inner bark of thattree shredded and beaten fine. Those who shook with cold and burned withfever recovered. Fray Ignatio was among those who sickened. He left after some days hishammock, but his strength did not come back to him. Yet, staff in hand, he went almost daily to Guarico. Then, like that! Fray Ignatio died. Hedied--his heart stopped--on the path between Guarico and La Navidad. He had been preaching, and then, Guarin told me, he put his hand to hisside, and said, "I will go home!" He started up the path, but at the bigtree he dropped. Men and women ran to him, but the butio was dead. We buried Fray Ignatio beneath the cross on the hilltop. The Indianswatched, and now they knew that we could die. The heat increased. At first Diego de Arana sent out at intervals exploring parties. We wereto learn, at least, Guacanagari's country. But the heat was great, andso many of those left at La Navidad only idle and sensual. They wouldpush on to a village--we found in Guacanagari's country many hamlets, but no other town like Guarico--and there they would stop, with newwomen, new talk, and the endless plenty to eat and sleep in theshade. When, at their own sweet will, they returned to La Navidad, the difficulties had been too great. They could not get to the highmountains where might or might not be the mines. But what they did wasto spread over the country scandalous news of scandalous gods. At last Arana sorted out those who could be trusted at least to strivefor knowledge and self-control and sent these. But that weakened him atLa Navidad, draining him of pure blood and leaving the infected, and bymid-April he ceased any effort at exploration. It must wait until theAdmiral returned, and he began to be hungry indeed for that return. Escobedo and Pedro Gutierrez were not hungry for it--not yet. Thesetwo became the head and front of ill, encouraging every insubordinate, infuriating all who suffered penalties, teaching insolence, self-willand license. They drew their own feather to them, promising evil knowswhat freedom for rapine. All the silver weather, golden weather, diamond weather since we hadleft Gomera in the Canaries--how many ages since!--now was changed. Wehad thought it would last always, but now we entered the long season ofgreat heat and daily rain. At first we thought these rains momentary, but day after day, week after week, with stifling heat, the cloudsgathered, broke, and came mighty rain that at last ceased to berefreshing, became only wearying and hateful. It did not cool us; welived in a sultry gloom. And the garrison of La Navidad became veryquarrelsome. La Navidad showed the Indians Europeans cursing oneanother, giving blows, only held back by those around from rushing ateach other, stabbing and cutting. Finally they saw Tomaso Passamontekill one Jacamo. Diego de Arana hung Tomaso Passamonte. But what werethe Indians to think? Not what they thought when first we came from thewinged canoes to their beaches. The last of April fell the second sickness and it was far worse thanthe first. Eleven men died, and we buried them. When it passed we weretwenty-five Spaniards in Hispaniola, and we liked not the Indians aswell as we had done, and they liked not us. Oh, the pity--pity--pity, the pity and the blame! Guacanagari came to visit the commandant, none with him but the butioGuarin, and desiring to speak with Arana out of the company. They talkedbeneath the big tree, that being the most comfortable and commodiouscouncil chamber. Don Diego was imperfect yet in the tongue of Guarico, and he called Juan Lepe to help him out. It was a story of Caonabo, cacique of Maguana that ran into the greatmountains of Cibao, that cacique of whom we had already heard as beinglike Caribs. Caonabo had sent quite secretly two of his brothers toGuacanagari. He had heard ill of the strangers and thought they weredemons, not gods! He advised the cacique of Guarico to surprise themwhile they slept and slay them. It was in his experience that all whoate and slept could be slain. If his brother Guacanagari needed help inthe adventure, Caonabo would give it. He would even come in person. Diego de Arana said, "What did you answer, O Cacique. " Guacanagari spoke at some length of our Great Cacique and his longingthat he might return. Everything had gone well while he was here! "Hewill return, " said Arana. "And he has your word. " Guacanagari stated that he meant to keep his word. He had returnedanswer to Caonabo that there had been misfortunes but that the mightystrangers were truly mighty, and almost wholly beneficent. At any rate, he was not prepared to slay them, did not wish to slay them. Arana spoke vigorously, pointing out to the cacique all the kindlinessthat had attended our first intercourse. The unhappinesses of February, March and April he attributed to real demons, not to our own fiend butto small powers at large, maleficent and alarmed, heathen powers inshort, jealous of the introduction of the Holy Catholic religion. Guacanagari seemed to understand about these powers. He looked relieved. But Guarin who was with him regarded the sea and I saw his lip curl. The commandant wished to know if there were any danger of Caonabo, alone, descending upon us from the mountains. But no! Maguana andGuarico were friends. They had not always been so, but now they werefriends. De Arana looked doubtfully, and I saw him determine tokeep watch and ward and to hold the men within or near to fort. ButGuacanagari sat serene. He repeated that there were always preliminariesbefore wars, and that for a long time there had only been peace betweenGuarico and Maguana. "Caonabo is Carib, " said the young copper priest. The cacique answered, "Carib long ago. Not now. " At sunset, the rain ceasing for a little, the earth smoking, the westa low, vaporous yellow, the swollen river sounding, Diego de Aranahad summoned by the drum every man in La Navidad. He stood beneath ourbanner and put his hand upon the staff and spoke earnestly to thosegathered before him, in their duty and out of their duty. He told ofCaonabo, and of his own sense that Guacanagari was too confident. Hetold of Guacanagari's fidelity to the Admiral, and he appealed to everyChristian there to be at least as faithful. We were few and far fromSpain, and we had perhaps more than we could conceive in trust. "Farfrom Spain, but no farther than we will from the blessed saints and thetrue Christ. Let us put less distance there, being few in this land andin danger!" He knew that he had a dozen with him, and looked straight at Escobedo. The latter said, "Live in the open and die there, if need be! To live inthis rat hole, breathing plague, is dying already! Caonabo is a fable!These people! Spaniards have but to lift voice and they flee!" He received from his following acquiescent sound. Spoke Pedro Gutierrez. "Guacanagari wishes to bottle us here; that is the whole of it. Why playhis game? I never saw a safer land! Only La Navidad is not safe!" Those two had half and perhaps more than half of the garrison. Aranacried, "Don Roderigo de Escobedo and Don Pedro Gutierrez, you serve theQueen ill!" "You, Senor, " answered Gutierrez, "serve my Lady Idle Fear and my LordIncapacity!" Whereupon Arana put him in arrest and he lay that night in prison. Thecloud was black over La Navidad. CHAPTER XXV IT did not lighten. Escobedo waited two days, then in the dark night, corrupting the watch, broke gaol for Pedro Gutierrez and with him andnine men quitted La Navidad. Beltran the cook it was who heard andprocured a great smoking torch, and sent out against them a voice likea bull of Bashan's. Arana sprang up, and the rest of us who slept. Theywere eleven men, armed and alert. There were shouts, blows, a clutchingand a throwing off, a detaining and repelling. In the east showed longghost fingers, the rain held away. They were at the gate when we ranupon them; they burst it open and went forth, leaving one of their ownnumber dead, and two of them who stayed with Arana desperately hurt. Wefollowed them down the path, through the wood, but they had the start. They did not go to Guarico, but they seized the boat of the _SantaMaria_ which the Admiral had left with us and went up the river. Weheard the dash of their oars, then the rain came down, with a weeping ofevery cloud. The dead man they left behind was Fernando. I had seen Pedro in thegate, going forth. Fourteen men, two of whom were ill and two wounded, stayed at LaNavidad. Arana said with passion, "Honest men and a garrison at one!There is some gain!" That could not be denied. Gain here, but how about it yonder? It was May. And now the rain fell in a great copious flood, huge-droppedand warm, and now it was restrained for a little, and there shone a sunconfused and fierce. Earth and forest dripped and streamed and smoked. We were Andalusians, but the heat drained us. But we held, we fourteenmen. Arana did well at La Navidad. We all did what we could to live liketrue not false Castilians, true not false Christians. And I name Beltranthe cook as hero and mighty encourager of hearts. We went back and forth between La Navidad and Guarico, for though theAdmiral had left us a store of food we got from them fruit and maizeand cassava. They were all friendly again, for the fourteen withheldthemselves from excess. Nor did we quarrel among ourselves and show themEuropean weakness. Guacanagari remained a big, easy, somewhat slothful, friendly barbarian, a child in much, but brave enough when roused and not without commonsense. He had an itch for marvels, loved to hear tales of our world thatfor all one could say remained to them witchcraft and cloudland, worldabove their world! What could they, who had no great beasts, make oftales of horsemen? What could their huts know of palace and tower andcathedral, their swimmers of stone bridges, their canoes of a thousandships greater far than the_ Santa Maria_ and the _Nina_? What couldGuarico know of Seville? In some slight wise they practiced barter, but huge markets and fairs to which traveled from all quarters and afarmerchants and buyers went with the tales of horsemen. And so with athousand things! We were the waving oak talking to the acorn. But there were among this folk two or three ready for knowledge. Guarinwas a learning soul. He foregathered with the physician Juan Lepe, andmany a talk they had, like a master and pupil, in some corner of LaNavidad, or under a palm-thatched roof, or, when the rain held, by riveror sounding sea. He had mind and moral sense, though not the Europeanmind at best, nor the European moral sense at highest. But he was wellbegun. And he had beauty of form and countenance and an eager, deep eye. Juan Lepe loved him. It was June. Guacanagari came to La Navidad, and his brown face was asserious as a tragedy. "Caonabo?" asked Diego de Arana. A fortnight before this the cacique, at Arana's desire, had sent threeIndians in a canoe up the river, the object news if possible of that tenwho had departed in that direction. Now the Indians were back. Theyhad gone a long way until the high mountains were just before them, andthere they heard news from the last folk who might be called Guaricoand the first folk who might be called Maguana. The mighty strangers hadgone on up into the mountains and Caonabo had put them to death. "To death!" It appeared that they had seized women and had beaten men whom theythought had gold which they would not give. They were madmen, Escobedoand Gutierrez and all with them! Guacanagari said that Caonabo had invited them to a feast. It was spreadin three houses, and they were divided so, and around each Spaniard wasput a ring of Indians. They were eating and drinking. Caonabo enteredthe first house, and his coming made the signal. Escobedo and PedroGutierrez were in this house. They raised a shout, "Undone, Spaniards!"But though they were heard in the other houses--these houses beingnothing more than booths--it was to no use. There followed struggle andmassacre; finally Gutierrez and Escobedo and eight men lay dead. Butcertain Indians were also killed and among them a son of Caonabo. It was July. We began to long toward the Admiral's return. A man amongus went melancholy mad, watching the sea, threatening the rain when itcame down and hid the sea, and the Admiral might go by! At last he threwhimself into ocean and was drowned. Another man was bitten by a serpent, and we could not save him. We were twelve Spaniards in La Navidad. Werested friends with Guarico, though now they held us to be nothing morethan demigods. And indeed by now we were ragged! Then, in a night, it came. Guacanagari again appeared. It had reached him from up the river thatCaonabo was making pact with the cacique of Marien and that thetwo meant to proceed against us. Standing, he spoke at length andeloquently. If he rested our friend, it might end in his having forfoes Maguana and Marien. There had been long peace, and Guarico did notdesire war. Moreover, Caonabo said that it was idle to dread Caribsand let in the mighty strangers! He said that all pale men, afraid ofthemselves so that they covered themselves up, were filled with evil_zemes_ and were worse than a thousand Caribs! But Caonabo was amocker and a hard-of-heart! Different was Guacanagari. He told us howdifferent. It all ended in great hope that Caonabo would think better ofit. We kept watch and ward. Yet we could not be utterly cooped within LaNavidad. Errands must be done, food be gathered. More than that, to seemto Guarico frightened, to cry that we must keep day and night behindwall with cannon trained, notwithstanding that Caonabo might be asleepin the mountains of Cibao, would be but to mine our own fame, we who, for all that had passed, still seemed to this folk mighty, each of usa host in himself! And as nothing came out of the forest, and no moremessengers of danger, they themselves had ceased to fear, being likechildren in this wise. And we, too, at last; for now it was late August, and the weather was better, and surely, surely, any day we might seea white point rise from blue ocean, --a white point and another andanother, like stars after long clouded night skies! So we watched the sea. And also there was a man to watch the forest. Butwe did not conceive that the dragon would come forth in the daytime, northat he could come at any time without our hearing afar the dragging ofhis body and the whistling of his breath. It was halfway between sunrise and noon. Five of us were in the village, seven at La Navidad. The five were there for melons and fruit andcassava and tobacco which we bought with beads and fishhooks and bits ofbright cloth. Three of the seven at La Navidad were out of gate, downat the river, washing their clothes. Diego Minas, the archer, on top ofwall, watched the forest. Walking below, Beltran the cook was singing inhis big voice a Moorish song that they made much of year before lastin Seville. I had a book of Messer Petrarca's poems. It had beenGutierrez's, who left it behind when he broke forth to the mountains. Beltran's voice suddenly ceased. Diego the archer above him on wall hadcried down, "Hush, will you, a moment!" Diego de Arana came up. "What isit?" "I thought, " said the archer, "that I heard a strange shouting fromtoward village. Hark ye! There!" We heard it, a confused sound. "Call in the men from the river!" Aranaordered. Diego Minas sent his voice down the slope. The three below by the riveralso heard the commotion, distant as Guarico. They were standing up, their eyes turned that way. Just behind them hung the forest out ofwhich slid, dark and smooth, the narrow river. Out of the forest came an arrow and struck to the heart Gabriel Baraona. Followed it a wild prolonged cry of many voices, peculiar and curdlingto the blood, and fifty--a hundred--a host of naked men painted blackwith white and red and yellow markings. Guarico did not use bow andarrow, but a Carib cacique knew them, and had so many, and also lancesflint or bone-headed, and clubs with stones wedged in them and stoneknives. Gabriel Baraona fell, whether dead or not we could not tell. Juan Morcillo and Gonzalo Fernandez sent a scream for aid up to LaNavidad. Now they were hidden as some small thing by furious bees. Diegode Arana rushed for his sword. "Down and cut them out!" Diego Minas fired the big lombard, but for fear of hurting our threemen sent wide the ball. We looked for terror always from the flame, thesmoke and great noise, and so there was terror here for a moment and abearing back in which Juan and Gonzalo got loose and made a littleway up path. But a barbarian was here who could not long be terrified. Caonabo sent half his horde against Guarico, but himself had come to LaNavidad. That painted army rallied and overtook the fleeing men. Shouting, making his swung sword dazzle in light, Diego de Arana raceddown path, and Diego Minas and Beltran the cook and Juan Lepe withhim. Many a time since then, in this island, have I seen half a dozenChristians with their arms and the superstitious terror that surroundedthem put to flight twenty times their number. But this was early, andthe spirit of these naked men not broken, and Caonabo faced us. It washe himself who, when three or four had been wounded by Arana, suddenlyrushed upon the commandant. With his stone-headed club he struck thesword away, and he plunged his knife into Arana's breast. He died, abrave man who had done his best at La Navidad. Juan Morcillo and Gonzalo Fernandez and Diego Minas were slain. I saw alifted club and swerved, but too late. Blackness and neither care nor delight. Then, far off, a little beatingof surf on shore, very far and nothing to do with anything. Then a clueof pain that it seemed I must follow or that must follow me, and atfirst it was a little thin thread, but then a cable and all my care wasto thin it again. It passed into an ache and throb that filled my beinglike the rain clouds the sky. Then suddenly there were yet heavy cloudsbut the sky around and behind. I opened my eyes and sat up, but foundthat my arms were bound to my sides. "We aren't dead, and that's some comfort, Doctor, as the cock said tothe other cock in the market pannier!" It was Beltran the cook whospoke and he was bound like me. Around us lay the five dead. A score ofIndians warded us, mighty strangers in bonds, and we heard the rest upat the fort where they were searching and pillaging. Guarico, and the men there? We found that out when at last they were done with La Navidad and theyand we were put on the march. We came to where had been Guarico, andtruly for long we had smelled the burning of it, as we had heard thecrying and shouting. It was all down, the frail houses. I made out inthe loud talking that followed the blending of Caonabo's bands what hadbeen done and not done. Guacanagari, wounded, was fled after fightinga while, he and his brother and the butio and all the people. But themighty strangers found in the village, were dead. They had run down tothe sea, but Caonabo's men had caught them, and after hard work killedthem. Juan Lepe and Beltran, passing, saw the five bodies. I do not think that Caonabo had less than a thousand with him. He hadcome in force, and the whole as silent as a bat or moth. We were tolearn over and over again that "Indians" could do that, travel verysilently, creatures of the forest who took by surprise. Well, Guaricowas destroyed, and Guacanagari and Guarin fled, and in all Hispaniolawere only two Spaniards, and we saw no sail upon the sea, no sail atall! CHAPTER XXVI WE turned from the sea. Thick forest came between us and it. We weregoing with Caonabo to the mountains. Beltran and I thought that it hadbeen in question whether he should kill us at once, or hold us in lifeuntil we had been shown as trophies in Maguana, and that the pride andvanity of the latter course prevailed. After two days in this ruinedplace, during which we saw no Guarico Indian, we departed. The raid wasover. All their war is by raid. They carried everything from the fortsave the fort itself and the two lombards. In the narrow paths that arethis world's roads, one man must walk after another, and their columnseems endless where it winds and is lost and appears again. Beltran andI were no longer bound. Nor were we treated unkindly, starved nor hurtin any way. All that waited until we should reach Caonabo's town. Caonabo was a most handsome barbarian, strong and fierce andintelligent, more fierce, more intelligent than Guacanagari. All hadbeen painted, but the heat of the lowland and their great exertion hadmade the coloring run and mix most unseemly. When they left Guaricothey plunged into the river and washed the whole away, coming out clearred-brown, shining and better to look upon. Caonabo washed, but then hewould renew his marking with the paint which he carried with him in alittle calabash. A pool, still and reflecting as any polished shield, made his mirror. He painted in a terrific pattern what seemed meant for lightning andserpent. It was armor and plume and banner to him. I thought of our owndevices, comforting or discomforting kinships! He had black, lustroushair, no beard--they pluck out all body hair save the head thatch--highfeatures, a studied look of settled and cold fierceness. Such was thisCarib in Hispaniola. Presently they put a watch and the rest all lay down and slept, Beltranbeside me. The day had been clear, and now a great moon made silver, silver, the land around. It shone upon the Spanish sailor and upon theCarib chief and all the naked Manguana men. I thought of Europe, andof how all this or its like had been going on hundred years by hundredyears, while perished Rome and quickened our kingdoms, while Charlemagnegoverned, while the Church rose until she towered and covered like thesky, while we went crusades and pilgrimages, while Venice and Genoaand Lisbon rose and flourished, while letters went on and we studiedAristotle, while question arose, and wider knowledge. At last Juan Lepe, too, went to sleep. Next day we traveled among and over mountains. Our path, so narrow, climbed by rock and tree. Now it overhung deep, tree-crammed vales, nowit bore through just-parted cliffs. Beltran and Juan Lepe had need forall their strength of body. The worst was that that old tremor and weakness of one leg and side, left after some sea fight, which had made Beltran the cook from Beltranthe mariner, came back. I saw his step begin to halt and drag. Thisincreased. An hour later, the path going over tree roots knotted likeserpents, he stumbled and fell. He picked himself up. "Hard to keep deckin this gale!" When he went down there had been an exclamation from those Indiansnearest us. "Aiya!" It was their word for rotten, no good, spoiled, disappointing, crippled or diseased, for a misformed child or an old manor woman arrived at helplessness. Such, I had learned from Guarin, theyalmost invariably killed. It was why, from the first, we hardly sawdwarfed or humped or crippled among them. We had to cross a torrent upon a tree that falling had made from sideto side a rounded bridge. Again that old hurt betrayed him. He slipped, would have fallen into the torrent below, but that I, turning, caughthim and the Indian behind us helped. We managed across. "My ship, " saidBeltran, "is going to pieces on the rocks. " The path became ladder steep. Now Beltran delayed all, for it was a lameman climbing. I helped him all I could. The sun was near its setting. We were aloft in these mountains. Greenheads still rose over us, but we were aloft, far above the sea. And nowwe were going through a ravine or pass where the walking was better. Here, too, a wind reached us and it was cooler. Cool eve of the heightsdrew on. We came to a bubbling well of coldest water and drank to ourgreat refreshment. Veritable pine trees, which we never saw in thelowlands, towered above and sang. The path was easier, but hardly, hardly, could Beltran drag himself along it. His arm was over myshoulder. Out of the dark pass we came upon a table almost bare of treesand covered with a fine soft grass. The mountains of Cibao, fiveleagues--maybe more--away, hung in emerald purple and gold under thesinking sun. The highest rocky peaks rose pale gold. Below us andbetween those mountains on which we stood and the golden mountains ofCibao, spread that plain, so beautiful, so wide and long, so fertile andsmiling and vast, that afterwards was called the Royal Plain! East andwest one might not see the end; south only the golden mountains stoppedit. And rivers shone, one great river and many lesser streams. And wesaw afar many plumes of smoke from many villages, and we made out maizefields, for the plain was populous. _Vega Real_! So lovely was it inthat bright eve! The very pain of the day made it lovelier. The high grassy space ran upon one side to sheer precipice, droppingclear two hundred feet. But there was camping ground enough--and the sunalmost touched the far, violet earth. The Indians threw themselves down. When they had supper they would eatit, when they had it not they would wait for breakfast. But Caonabo withtwenty young men came to us. He said something, and my arms were caughtfrom behind and held. He faced Beltran seated against a pine. "Aiya!" hesaid. His voice was deep and harsh, and he made a gesture of repugnance. There was a powerfully made Indian beside him, and I saw the lastgleam of the sun strike the long, sharp, stone knife. "Kill!" said thecacique. A dozen flung themselves upon Beltran, but there was no need, for hesat quite still with a steady face. He had time to cry to Juan Lepe, who cried to him, "That's what I say! Good cheer and courage and meetagain!" He had no long suffering. The knife was driven quickly to his heart. They drew the shell to the edge of the precipice and dropped it over. It was early night, it was middle night, it was late night. They had setno watch, for where and what was the danger here on this mountain top? One side went down in a precipice, one sloping less steeply we hadclimbed from the pine trees and the well, one of a like descent wewould take to-morrow down to the plain, but the fourth was mountainhead hanging above us and thick wood, --dark, entangled, pathless. Andit chanced or it was that Juan Lepe lay upon the side toward the peak, close to forest. The Indians had no thought to guard me. We lay downunder the moon, and that bronze host slept, naked beautiful statues, inevery attitude of rest. The moon shone until there was silver day. Juan Lepe was not sleeping. There was no wind, but he watched a branch move. It looked like a man'sarm, then it moved farther and was a full man, --an Indian, noiseless, out clear in the moon, from the wood. I knew him. It was the priestGuarin, priest and physician, for they are the same here. Palm againstearth, I half rose. He nodded, made a sign to rise wholly and come. Idid so. I stood and saw under the moon no waking face nor upspringingform. I stepped across an Indian, another, a third. Then was clearspace, the wood, Guarin. There was no sound save only the constant soundof this forest by night when a million million insects waken. He took my hand and drew me into the brake and wilderness. There wasno path. I followed him over I know not what of twined root and thickancient soil, a powder and flake that gave under foot, to a hidden, rocky shelf that broke and came again and broke and came again. Now wewere a hundred feet above that camp and going over mountain brow, goingto the north again. Gone were Caonabo and his Indians; gone the view ofthe plain and the mountains of Cibao. Again we met low cliff, long stonyledges sunk in the forest, invisible from below. I began to see thatthey would not know how to follow. Caonabo might know well the mountainsof Cibao, but this sierra that was straight behind Guarico, Guaricoknew. It is a blessed habit of their priests to go wandering in theforest, making their medicine, learning the country, discovering, using certain haunts for meditation. Sometimes they are gone from theirvillages for days and weeks. None indeed of these wild peoples fearreasonable solitude. Out of all which comes the fact that Guarin knewthis mountain. We were not far, as flies the bird, from the burned townof Guarico, from the sea without sail, from the ruined La Navidad. Whenthe dawn broke we saw ocean. He took me straight to a cavern, such another as that in which Jerezand Luis Torres and I had harbored in Cuba. But this had fine sand forfloor, and a row of calabashes, and wood laid for fire. Here Juan Lepe dropped, for all his head was swimming with weariness. The sun was up, the place glistered. Guarin showed how it was hidden. "Ifound it when I was a boy, and none but Guarin hath ever come hereuntil you come, Juan Lepe!" He had no fear, it was evident, of Caonabo'scoming. "They will think your idol helped you away. If they look foryou, it will be in the cloud. They will say, 'See that dark mark movinground edge of cloud mountain! That is he!'" I asked him, "Where areGuacanagari and the rest?" "Guacanagari had an arrow through his thigh and a deep cut upon thehead. He was bleeding and in a swoon. His brother and the Guarico menand I with them took him, and the women took the children, and we wentaway, save a few that were killed, upon the path that we used when in myfather's time, the Caribs came in canoes. After a while we will go downto Guacanagari. But now rest!" He looked at me, and then from a little trickling spring he took waterin a calabash no larger than an orange and from another vessel a whitedust which he stirred into it, and made me drink. I did not know what itwas, but I went to sleep. But that sleep did not refresh. It was filled with heavy and dreadfuldreams, and I woke with an aching head and a burning skin. Juan Lepe whohad nursed the sick down there in La Navidad knew feebly what it was. Hesaw in a mist the naked priest, his friend and rescuer, seated upon thesandy floor regarding him with a wrinkled brow and compressed lips, andthen he sank into fever visions uncouth and dreadful, or mirage-pleasingwith a mirage-ecstasy. Juan Lepe did not die, but he lay ill and like to die for two months. It was deep in October, that day at dawn when I came quietly, evenly, to myself again, and lay most weak, but with seeing eyes. At first Ithought I was alone in the cavern, but then I saw Guarin where he layasleep. That day I strengthened, and the next day and the next. But I had lainlong at the very feet of death, and full strength was a tortoise inreturning. So good to Juan Lepe was Guarin! Now he was with me, and now he went away to that village where wasGuacanagari. He had done this from the first coming here, nursing me, then going down through the forest to see that all was well with hiswounded cacique and the folk whose butio he was. They knew his ways anddid not try to keep him when he would return to the mountain, to "makemedicine. " So none knew of the cavern or that there was one Spaniardleft alive in all Hayti. I strengthened. At last I could draw myself out of cave and lie, in thenow so pleasant weather, upon the ledge before it. All the vast heat andmoisture was gone by; now again was weather of last year when we foundSan Salvador. I could see ocean. No sail, and were he returning, surely it should havebeen before this! He might never return. When Guarin was away I sat or lay or moved about a small demesne andstill prospered. There were clean rock, the water, the marvelous forest. He brought cassava cake, fruit, fish from the sea. He brought me forentertainment a talking parrot, and there lived in a seam of the rocka beautiful lizard with whom I made friends. The air was balm, balm!A steady soft wind made cataract sound in the forest. Sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight, were great glories. It was November; it was mid-November and after. Now I was strong and wandered in the forest, though never far from thatcliff and cavern. It was settled between us that in five days I shouldgo down with Guarin to Guacanagari. He proposed that I should be takenformally into the tribe. They had a ceremony of adoption, and after thatJuan Lepe would be Guarico. He would live with and teach the Guaricos, becoming butio--he and Guarin butios together. I pondered it. If theAdmiral came not again it was the one thing to do. I remember the very odor and exquisite touch of the morning. Guarinwas away. I had to myself cave and ledge and little waterfall and greattrees that now I was telling one from another. I had parrot andlizard and spoke now to the one and now to the other. I remember thebutterflies and the humming birds. I looked out to sea and saw a sail! It was afar, a white point. I leaned against the rock for I was suddenlyweak who the moment before had felt strong. The white point swelled. It would be a goodly large ship. Over blue rim slipped another flake. A little off I saw a third, then a fourth. Juan Lepe rubbed his eyes. Before there came no more he had counted seventeen sail. They grew; theywere so beauteous. Toward the harbor sailed a fleet. Now I made out theflagship. O Life, thou wondrous goddess of happenings! An hour I sat on cliff edge and watched. They were making in, thelovely white swans. When they were fairly near, when in little time theforemost would bring to, down sail and drop anchor, Juan Lepe, gatheringhis belongings together, bidding the lizard farewell and taking theparrot with him on shoulder, left cavern and cliff and took Guarin'spath down through the forest. Halfway to level land he met Guarin coming up; the two met beneath atree huge and spreading, curtained with a vine, starred with flowers. "He has come!" cried the Indian. "They have come!" In his voice wasmarveling, awe, perturbation. The sun in the sky shone, and in the bay hung that wonder of return, the many ships for the _Nina_. Juan Lepe and Guarin went on down throughwood to a narrow silver beach, out upon which had cast itself an Indianvillage. Guacanagari was not here. He waited within his house for the Admiral. But his brother, and others of Guarico, saw me and there rose a clamorand excitement that for the moment took them from the ships. Guarinexplained and Juan Lepe explained, but still this miraculous day dyedalso for them my presence here. I had been slain, and had come to lifeto greet the Great Cacique! It grew to a legend. I met it so, longafterwards in Hispaniola. CHAPTER XXVII ONE by one were incoming, were folding wings, were anchoring, Spanishships. Three were larger each than the _Santa Maria_ and the _Pinta_together; the others caravels of varying size. Seventeen in all, afleet, crowded with men, having cannon and banners and music. Europe wascoming with strength into Asia! The Indians on the beach were moved asby an unresting wind. They had terror, they had delight, and some a merestupidity of staring. The greatest ship, the first to anchor, carriedthe banner of Castile and Leon, and the Admiral's banner. Now a boat putoff from her, boats also from the two ships next in grandeur. As they came over the blue wave Juan Lepe stepped down sand to wateredge. Not here, but somewhat to the west, before La Navidad would onelook for this anchoring. He thought rightly that the Admiral came herefrom La Navidad, where he found only ruin, but also some straying Indianwho could give news. So it was, for presently in the foremost boat Imade out two Guarico men. They had told of Caonabo and of Guacanagari'sfortunes, and of every Spaniard dead of that illness or slain byCaonabo. They would put Juan Lepe among these last, but here was JuanLepe, one only left of that thirty-eight. The boat approached. I saw the bared head, higher than any other, thewhite hair, the blue-gray eyes, the strong nose and lips, thewhole majestic air of the man, as of a great one chosen. MasterChristopherus--Don Cristoval--_el Almirante_! One of the rowers, andthat was Sancho with whom I had walked on the Fishertown road, firstsaw me and gave a startled cry. All in the boat turned head. I heard theAdmiral's voice, "Aye, it is! It is!" Boat touched sand, there was landing. All sprang out. The Admiral tookme in his arms. "You alone--one only?" I answered, "One only. The most died in their duty. " He released me. "Senors, this is senor Juan Lepe, that good physicianwhom we left. Now tell--tell all--before we go among this folk!" By water edge I told, thirty men of Spain around me. A woeful story, Imade it short. These men listened, and when it was done fell a silence. Christopherus Columbus broke it. "The wave sucks under and throws outagain, but we sail the sea, have sailed it and will sail it!--Now werethese Indians false or fair?" I could tell how fair they had been--could praise Guarico andGuacanagari and Guarin. He listened with great satisfaction. "I wouldlay my head for that Indian!" Talk with him could not be prolonged, for we were in a scene of thegreatest business and commotion. When I sought for Guarin he was gone. Nor was Guacanagari yet at hand. I looked at the swarming ships and shipboats, and the coming and coming upon the beach of more and more clothedmen, and at the tall green palms and the feathered mountains. Thishost, it seemed to me, was not so artlessly amazed as had been we of the_Santa Maria_, the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_, when first we came to landsso strange to Europe. Presently I made out that they had seen othersof these islands and shores. Coming from Spain they had sailed moresoutherly than we had done before them. They had made a great dip andhad come north-by-west to Hispaniola. I heard names of islands given bythe Admiral, Dominica, Marigalante, Guadaloupe, Santa Maria la Antigua, San Juan. They had anchored by these, set foot upon them, even foughtwith people who were Caribs, Caribals or Cannibals. They had a dozenCaribs, men and women, prisoners upon the _Marigalante_ that was theAdmiral's ship. This group about Juan Lepe, survivor of La Navidad, talked like seasonedfinders and takers. For the most part they were young men and hidalgos, fighters against the Moors, released by the final conquest of thosepaynims, out now for further wild adventure and for gold with which toreturn, wealthy and still young, to Spanish country, Spanish cities, Spanish women! They had the virtue and the vice of their sort, courage, miraculous generosities and as miraculous weaknesses. Gold, valor, comradeship--and eyes resting appraisingly upon young Guarico womenthere upon the silver beach with Guarico men. I heard one cry "Master Juan Lepe!" and turning found Luis Torres. Weembraced, we were so glad each to see the other. My hidalgos were gone, but before I could question Luis or he me, there bore down uponus, coming together like birds, half a dozen friars. "We bringtwelve--number of the Apostles!" said Luis. "Monks and priests. FatherBernardo Buil is their head. The Holy Father hath appointed him Vicarhere. You won't find him a Fray Ignatio!" A bull-necked, dark-browed, choleric looking man addressed me. HisBenedictine dress became him ill. He should have been a Captain of FreeLances in whatever brisk war was waging. He said, "The survivor, JuanLepe?--We stopped at your La Navidad and found ruin and emptiness. Theremust have been ill management--gross!" "They are all dead, " I answered. "None of us manage the towers so verywell!" He regarded me more attentively. "The physician, Juan Lepe. Where didyou study?" "In Poitiers and in Paris, Father. " "You have, " he said, "the height and sinew and something of the eye andvoice of a notable disappeared heretic, Jayme de Marchena, who slippedthe Dominicans. I saw him once from a doorway. But that the Prior of LaRabida himself told me that he had accurate knowledge that the man wasgone with the Jews to Fez, I could almost think--But of course it is notpossible, and now I see the differences. " I answered him with some indifferent word, and we came to the Haytiens, and how many had Fray Ignatio made Christian? "I knew him, " said theBenedictine. "A good man, but weak, weak!" Juan Lepe asked of the Indians the Admiral had taken to Spain. "Butsix reached us alive. We instructed them and baptized them. A greatevent--the Grand Cardinal and the King and the Queen attending! Threedied during the summer, but blessedly, being the first of all theirpeople in all time to enter heaven. A great salvation!" He looked at the forest and mountains, the sands, the Guaricos, as at acity he was besieging. "Ha!" said Father Buil, and with his missionaries moved up the beach. Luis and I began to talk. "No need to tell me that Spain gave youwelcome!"' "The royalest ever! First we came to Lisbon, driven in by storm, and hadit there from King John, and then to Palos which, so to speak, went mad!Then through Spain to Barcelona, where was the court, and all the bellsin every town ringing and every door and window crowded, and here isthe Faery Prince on a white charger, his Indians behind him and goldand parrots and his sailors! Processions and processions--alcalde andalcayde and don and friar and priest, and let us stop at the churchand kneel before high altar, and vow again in seven years to free theSepulchre! He hath walked and ridden, waked and slept, in a great, highvision! Most men have visions but he can sustain vision. " "Aye, he can!" "So at last into Barcelona, where grandees meet us, and so on to thecourt, and music as though the world had turned music! And the King andQueen and great welcome, and, 'Sit beside us, Don Cristoval Colon!' and'Tell and tell again', and 'Praise we Most High God!'" "It is something for which to praise! Ends of the earth beginning tomeet. " "Aye! So we write that very night to the Pope to be confirmed that theglory and profit under God are to Castile and Aragon. But the Queenthought most of the heathen brought to Christ. And the Admiral thinks ofhis sons and his brothers and his old father, and of the Holy Sepulchreand of the Prophecies, and he has the joy of the runner who touchesthe goal!--I would you could have seen the royalty with which he wastreated--not one day nor week but a whole summer long--the flocking, the bowing and capping, the 'Do me the honor--', the 'I have a smallpetition. ' Nothing conquers like conquering!" "He had long patience. " "Aye. Well, he is at height now. But he has got with him the olddisastrous seeds. --Fifteen hundred men, and among them quite a plentylike Gutierrez and Escobedo! But there are good men, too, and a greatlot of romantical daredevils. No pressing this time! We might havebrought five thousand could the ships have held them. 'Come to theIndies and make your fortune!'--'Aye, that is my desire!'" I said, "I am looking now at a romantical daredevil whom I have seenbefore, though I am sure that he never noticed me. " "Don Alonso de Ojeda? He is feather in cap, and sometimes cap, and evenat stress head within the cap! Without moving you've beckoned him. " There approached a young man of whom I knew something, having had himpointed out by Enrique de Cerda in Santa Fe. I had before that heard hisname and somewhat of his exploits. In our day, over all Spain, one mightfind or hear of cavaliers of this brand. War with the Moor had lastedsomewhat longer than the old famed war with Troy. It had modeled youth;young men were old soldiers. When there came up a sprite like this onehe drank war like wine. A slight young man, taut as a rope in a gale, with dark eyes and red lips and a swift, decisive step, up he came. "Oh, you are the man who lived out of all your fort? How did you manageit?" "I had a friend among these friendly Indians who rescued me. " "Yes! It is excellent warfare to have friends. --You have seen no knightnor men-at-arms, nor heard of such?" "Not under those names. " "How far do you think we may be from true houses and cities, castles, fortresses?" "I haven't the least idea. By the looks of it, pretty far. " "It seems to me that you speak truth, " he answered. "Well, it isn't whatwe looked for, but it's something! Room yet to dare!" Off he went, halfMercury, half Mars, and a sprig of youth to draw the eyes. "Was there nothing ever heard, " I asked Luis, "of the _Pinta_ and MartinPinzon?" "He is dead. " "You saw the wreck?" "No, not that way, though true it is that he wrecked himself! I forgetthat you know nothing. We met the _Pinta_ last January, not a day fromhere, with Monte Cristi there yet in sight. When he came aboard and satin the great cabin I do not know what he said, except that it was ofseparation by that storm, and the feeling that two parties discoveringwould thereby discover the more, and the better serve their Majesties. The Admiral made no quarrel with him. He had some gold and some news ofcoasts that we had not seen. And he did not seem to think it necessaryto seem penitent or anything but just naturally Martin Pinzon. So on wesailed together, he on the _Pinta_ and the Admiral on the _Nina_. Butthat was a rough voyage home over Ocean-Sea! Had we had such weathercoming, might have been mutiny and throat-cutting and putting back, Cathay and India being of no aid to dead men! Six times at least wethought we were drowned, and made vows, kneeling all together and theAdmiral praying for us, Fray Ignatio not being there. Then came clear, but beyond Canaries a three days', three nights' weather that trulydrove us apart, the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_. We lost each other in thedarkness and never found again. We were beaten into the Tagus, the_Pinta_ on to Bayonne. Then, mid-March, we came to Palos, landed andthe wonder began. And in three days who should come limping in but the_Pinta_? But she missed the triumph, and Martin Pinzon was sick, andthere was some coldness shown. He went ashore to his own house, and hisillness growing worse he died there. Well, he had qualities. " "Aye, " I answered, with a vision of the big, bluff, golden-haired man. "Vicente Pinzon is here; his ship the _Cordera_ yonder. What's the stirnow? The Admiral will go to see Guacanagari?" That, it seemed, was what it was, and presently came word that JuanLepe should go with him. A body of cavaliers sumptuously clad, some evenwearing shining corselet, greaves and helm, was forming about him whowas himself in a magnificent dress. Besides these were fifty of theplainer sort, and there lacked not crossbow, lance and arquebus. Andthere were banners and music. We were going like an army to be brotherlywith Guacanagari. Father Buil was going also, and his twelve gowned men. "Who, " I asked Luis, "is the man beside the Admiral? He seems his kin. " "He is. It is his brother, Don Diego. He is a good man, able, too, though not able like the Admiral. They say the other brother, Bartholomew, who is in England or in France, is almost as able. Howdizzily turns the wheel for some of us! Yesterday plain Diego andBartholomew, a would-be churchman and a shipmaster and chart-maker! NowDon Diego--Don Bartholomew! And the two sons watching us off from Cadiz!Pages both of them to the Prince, and pictures to look at! 'Father!' and'Noble father! and 'Forget not your health, who are our Dependance!'" Waiting for all to start, I yet regarded that huge dazzle upon thebeach, so many landed, so many coming from the ships, the shipsthemselves so great a drift of sea birds! As for those dark folk--whatshould they think of all these breakers-in from heaven? It seemed tome to-day that despite their friendliness shown us here from the first, despite the miracle and the fed eye and ear and the excitement, theyknew afar a pale Consternation. At last, to drum and trumpet, we passed from shining beach intogreen forest. I found myself for a moment beside Diego Colon--not theAdmiral's brother, but the young Indian so named. Now he was Christianand clothed, and truly the Haitiens stared at him hardly less than atthe Admiral. I greeted him and he me. He tried to speak in Castilian butit was very hard for him, and in a moment we slipped into Indian. I asked him, "How did you like Spain?" He looked at me with a remote and childlike eye and began to speak ofhouses and roads and horses and oxen. A message came from the Admiral at head of column. I went to him. Menlooked at me as I passed them. I was ragged now, grizzle-bearded andwan, and they seemed to say, "Is it so this strange land does them? Butthose first ones were few and we are many, and it does not lie in ourfortune! Gold lies in ours, and return in splendor and happiness. " Butsome had more thoughtful eyes and truer sense of wonder. We found Guacanagari in a new, large, very clean house, and found himlying in a great hammock with his leg bound with cotton web, around himwives and chief men. He sat up to greet the Admiral and with a nobleand affecting air poured forth speech and laid his hand upon his hiddenhurt. Now I knew, because Guarin had told me so, that that wound was healed. It had given trouble--the Caribs poisoned their darts--but now itwas well. But they are simpler minded than we, this folk, and I readGuacanagari that he must impress the returning gods with his fidelity. He had proved it, and while Juan Lepe was by he did not need thismummery, but he had thought that he might need. So, a big man evidentlyhealthful, he sighed and winced and half closed his eyes as though halfdying still in that old contest when he had stood by the people from thesky. I interpreted his speech, the Admiral already understanding, butnot the surrounding cavaliers. It was a high speech or high assurancethat he had done his highest best. "Do I not believe that, Guacanagari?" said the Admiral, and thinking ofDiego de Arana and Fray Ignatio and others and of the good hope of LaNavidad, tears came into his eyes. He sat upon the most honorable block of wood which was brought him andtalked to Guacanagari. Then at his gesture one brought his presents, a mirror, a rich belt, a knife, a pair of castanets. Guacanagari, itseemed, since the sighting of the ships, had made collection on hispart. He gave enough gold to make lustful many an eye looking upon thatscene. The women brought food and set before the Spaniards in the house. I found Guarin and presently we came to be standing withoutthe entrance--they had no doors; sometimes they had curtains ofcotton--looking upon that strange gathering in the little middle squareof the town. So many Spaniards in the palm shadows, and the womenfeeding them, and Alonso de Ojeda's hand upon the arm of a slender browngirl with a wreath of flowers around her head. Father Buil was withinwith the Admiral, truculently and suspiciously regarding the idolaterwho now had left the hammock and seemed as well of a wound as any there!But here without were eight or ten friars, gathered together under apalm tree, making refection and talking among themselves. One devoutbrother, sitting apart and fasting, told his beads. Said Guarin, "I have been watching him. He is talking to his_zeme_. --They are all butios?" "Yes. Most of them are good men. " "What is going to happen here to all my people? Something is overagainst me and my people, I feel it! Even the cacique has fear. " "It is the dark Ignorance and the light Ignorance, the clothed Ignoranceand the naked Ignorance. I feel it too, what you feel. But I feel, OGuarin, that the inner and true Man will not and cannot take hurt!" He said, "Do they come for good?" I answered, "There is much good in their coming. Seen from the mountainbrow, enormous good, I think. In the long run I am fain to think thatall have their market here, you no less than I, Guacanagari no less thanthe Admiral. " "I do not know that, " he said. "It seems to me the sunny day is dark. " I said, "In the main all things work together, and in the end is honey. " Out they came from palm-roofed house, the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea andViceroy of what Indies he could find for Spain and Spain could take, andthe Indian king or grandee or princeling. Perceiving that what he didwas appreciated for what it was, Guacanagari had recovered his lameness. The cotton was no longer about his thigh; he moved straight andlightly, --a big, easy Indian. It was now well on in the afternoon, but he would go with the MightyStranger, the Great Cacique his friend, to see the ships and all thewonders. His was a childlike craving for pure novelty and marvel. So we went, all of us, back through vast woodland to cerulean water. Water was deep, the _Marigalante_ rode close in, and about and beyondher the _Santa Clara_, the _Cordera_, the _San Juan_, the _Juana_, another _Nina_, the _Beatrix_ and many another fair name. They werebeautiful, the ships on the gay water and about them the boats and thered men's canoes. We went to the _Marigalante_, I with the Admiral. Dancing across inthe boat there spoke to me Don Diego Colon, born Giacomo Colombo, and Ifound him a sober, able man, with a churchly inclination. Here rose theMarigalante, and now we were upon it, and it was a greater ship thanthe _Santa Maria_, a goodly ship, with goodly gear aboard and goodlySpaniards. Jayme de Marchena felt the tug of blood, of home-coming intohis country. CHAPTER XXVIII FINDING young Sancho upon the _Marigalante_, I kept him beside me forinformation's sake. He, too, had his stories. And he asked me how Pedroand Fernando died. In this ship were two sets of captives, animals brought from Spain andIndians from those fiercer islands to the south. The _Monsalvat_ thatwas a freight ship had many animals, said Sancho, cattle and swine andsheep and goats and cocks and hens, and thirty horses. But upon the_Marigalante_, well-penned, the Admiral had a stallion and two mares, a young bull and a couple of heifers, and two dogs--bloodhounds. TheCaribs were yonder, five men in all. He took me to see them. They were tall, strong, sullen and desperate inaspect, hardier, fiercer than Indians of these northward lands. But theywere Indians, and their guttural speech could be made out, at least insubstance. They asked with a high, contemptuous look when we meant toslay and eat them. "They eat men's flesh, every Caribal of them! We saw horrid things inGuadaloupe!" Away from these men sat or stood seven women. "They were captives, " saidSancho. "Caribs had ravished them from other islands and they fled inGuadaloupe to us. " These women, too, seemed more strongly fibred, courageous, high of headthan the Hayti women. There was among them one to whom the others gavedeference, a chieftainess, strong and warlike in mien, not smoothlyyoung nor after their notions beautiful, but with an air of sagacityand pride. A ship boy stood with us. "That is Catalina, " he said. "Ho, Catalina!" The woman looked at him with disdain and what she said was, "Young foolwith fool-gods!" "They came to us for refuge, " said Sancho. "We think they are Amazons. There was an island where they fought us like men--great bow-women! DonAlonso de Ojeda first called this one Catalina, so now we all call herCatalina. At first they liked us, but now that they are safe away fromCaribs--all but these five and they can't hurt them--they sit and pine!I call it ungrateful, Catalina!" We moved away. There came from the great cabin where they had wine andfine sweet cakes the Admiral and Guacanagari, with them Don Diego andthree or four cavaliers. Guarin was not with the cacique, upon the_Marigalante_. He would not come. I had a vision of him, in the forest, seated motionless, communing with the deepest self to which he couldreach, seeking light with the other light-seekers. Christopherus Columbus beckoned me and I went the round of the shipwith him and others and his guest, this far-away son of Great India. So, presently, he was taken to view the horses and the cattle. Whoever hathseen lions brought to a court for show hath seen some shrinking fromtoo-close and heard timorous asking if the bars be really strong. Andthe old, wild beasts at Rome for the games. If one came by chance uponthem in a narrow quarter there might be terror. And the bull that wegoad to madness for a game in Spain--were barriers down would comea-scrambling! This cacique had never seen an animal larger than a foxor a dog, Yet he stood with steadiness, though his glance shot here andthere. The stallion was restless and fiery-eyed; the bull sent forth abellow. "Why do they come? What will they do here? Will you put them inthe forest? The people will be afraid to wander!" He looked away to sky and sea and shore. "It grows toward night, " hesaid. "I will go back to my town. " The Admiral said, "I would first show you the Caribs, " and took himthere where they were bound. The Haytien regarded them, but the Caribswere as contemptuously silent as might have been Alonso de Ojeda in likecircumstances. Only as Guacanagari turned away, one spoke in a fierce, monotonous voice. "You also, Haytien, one moon!" "You lie! Only Caribs!" Guacanagari said back. The cacique stood before the woman whom they called Catalina. She brokeinto speech. It was cacique to cacique. She was from Boriquen--she wouldreturn in a canoe if she were free! Better drown than live with theutterly un-understandable--only that they ate and drank and laid holdof women whether these would or would not, and were understandable thatfar! Gods! At first she thought them gods; now she doubted. Theywere magicians. If she were free--if she were free--if she werefree! Home--Boriquen! If not that, at least her own color and theunderstandable! Guacanagari stood and listened. She spoke so fast--the Admiral neverbecame quite perfect in Indian tongues, and few upon the _Marigalante_were so at this time. Juan Lepe understood. But just as he was thinkingthat in duty bound he must say to the Admiral, "She is underminingreputation. Best move away!" Guacanagari made a violent gesture asthough he would break a spell. "Where could they come from with all thatthey have except from heaven? Who can plan against gods? It is sin tothink of it! _El Almirante_ will make you happy, Boriquen woman!" We left the women. But Guacanagari himself was not happy, as he had beenthat Christmas-tide when first the gods came, when the _Santa Maria_ waswrecked and he gave us hospitality. The Admiral did not see that he was unhappy. The Admiral saw always avast main good, and he thought it pearl and gold in every fiber. As yet, he saw no rotted string, no snarl to be untangled. It was his weakness, and maybe, too, his strength. The sunset hung over this roadstead and the shore. The mountains glowedin it, the nearer wood fell dark, the beach showed milky white, a knotof palms upon a horn of land caught full gold and shone as though theywere in heaven. Over upon the _Cordera_ they were singing. The longcacique-canoe shot out from the shadow of the _Marigalante_. Sun dipped, night cupped hands over the world. The long day ofexcitement was over. Mariners slept, adventurers gentle and simple, thetwelve friars and Father Buil. Seventeen ships, nigh fifteen hundredmen of Europe, swinging with the tide before the land we were to makeSpanish. The watch raised a cry. Springing from his bed Juan Lepe came on deckto find there confusion, and under the moon in the clear water, swimmingforms, swimming from us in a kind of desperate haste and strength. Therewas shouting to man the boat. One jostling against me cried that theywere the captive Indians. They had broken bonds, lifted hatch, knockeddown the watch, leaped over side. Another shouted. No, the Caribs weresafe. These were the women-- The women--seven forms might be made out--werenot far from land. I felt tingling across to me their hope and fear. Outof ship shadow shot after them our boat. Strongly rowed, it seemed togain, but they made speed strongly, strongly. The boat got into troublewith the shallows. The swimmers now stood and ran, now were racers; ina moment they would touch the dry, the shining beach. Out of boat sprangmen running after them, running across low white lines of foam. Thewomen, that strong woman cacique ahead, left water, raced across sandtoward forest. Two men were gaining, they caught at the least swiftwoman. The dark, naked form broke from them, leaped like a hurt deer andrunning at speed passed with all into the ebony band that was forest. Alonso de Ojeda burst into a great laugh. "Well done, Catalina!" The Admiral's place could ever be told by his head over all. Moreoverhis warm, lifted, powerfully pulsing nature was capable of making aroundhim a sphere that tingled and drew. One not so much saw him as felt him, here, there. Now I stood beside him where he leaned over rail. "Gone, "he said. "They are gone!" He drew a deep breath. I can swear that he, too, felt an inner joy that they had escaped clutching. But in the morning he sent ashore a large party under his brother, DonDiego. We received another surprise. No Indians on the beach, nonein the forest, and when they came to the village, only houses, a fewparrots and the gardens, dewy fresh under the sun's first streaming. NoIndians there, nor man nor woman nor child, not Guacanagari, not Guarin, not Catalina and her crew--none! They were gone, and we knew not where, Quisquaya being a huge country, and the paths yet hidden from us or ofdoubtful treading. But the heaped mountains rose before us, and JuanLepe at least could feel assured that they were gone there. Theyvanished and for long we heard nothing of them, not of Guacanagari, norof Guarin who had saved Juan Lepe, not of Catalina, nor any. This neighborhood, La Navidad and the shipwreck of the _Santa Maria_, burned Guarico and now this empty village, perpetual reminder that insome part our Indian subjects liked us not so well as formerly andcould not be made Christian with a breath, grew no longer to ourchoice. Something of melancholy overhung for the Admiral this part ofHispaniola. He was seeking a site for a city, but now he liked it nothere. The seventeen ships put on sail and, a stately flight of birdsgreater than herons, pursued their way, easterly now, along the coast ofHispaniola. Between thirty and forty leagues from the ruin of La Navidad opened tous a fair, large harbor where two rivers entered the sea. There wasa great forest and bright protruding rock, and across the south themountains. When we landed and explored we found a small Indian villagethat had only vaguely heard that gods had descended. Forty leaguesacross these forests is a long way. They had heard a rumor that thecacique of Guarico liked the mighty strangers and Caonabo liked themnot, but as yet knew little more. The harbor, the land, the two riverspleased us. "Here we will build, " quoth the Viceroy, "a city namedIsabella. " CHAPTER XXIX CHRISTMASTIDE, a year from the sinking of the _Santa Maria_, came tonigh two thousand Christian men dwelling in some manner of houses bya river in a land that, so short time before, had never heard theword "Christmas. " Now, in Spain and elsewhere, men and women, hearingChristmas bells, might wonder, "What are they doing--are they alsogoing to mass--those adventurers across the Sea of Darkness? Have theyconverted the Indies? Are they moving happily in the golden, spicylands? Great marvel! Christ now is born there as here!" Juan Lepe chanced to be walking in the cool of the evening with DonFrancisco de Las Casas, a sensible, strong man, not unread in thephilosophers. He spoke to me of his son, a young man whom he loved, whowould sooner or later come out to him to Hispaniola, if he, the elder, stayed here. So soon as this we had begun to speak thus, "Come out toHispaniola. " "Come out to Isabella in Hispaniola. " What a strong wind islife, leaping from continent to continent and crying, "Home wherever Ican breathe and move!" This young man was Bartolome, then at Salamanca, at the University. Bartolome de Las Casas, whom Juan Lepe should liveto know and work with. But this evening I heard the father talk, as anyfather of any promising son. With us, too, was Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who had a story out ofMandeville of a well by the city of Polombe in Prester John's country. If you drank of the well, though you were dying you would never morehave sickness, and though you were white-bearded you would come youngagain! The palms waved above Isabella that was building behind the camp by theriver. It was beginning, it was planned out; the stone church, the stonehouse of the Viceroy were already breast-high. A Spanish city building, and the bells of Europe ringing. Out sprang the noise of a brawl. --There was that in the Admiral thatwould have when it could outward no less than inward magnificence. He could go like a Spartan or Diogenes the Cynic, but when the chancecame--magnificence! With him from Spain traveled a Viceroy's household. He had no less than thirty personal servants and retainers. Hidalgoshere at Isabella had also servants, but no one more than two or three. It was among these folk that first arose our amazing jealousies andenvies. Now and again the masters must take part. Not the Viceroy who insuch matters went very stately, but certain of our gentlemen. Loud andangry voices rose under the palms, under a sky of pale gold. Sent for, I found the Admiral lying on his bed, not yet in his stonehouse but in a rich and large pavilion brought out especially for theViceroy and now pitched upon the river bank, under palms. I came to himpast numbers out of that thirty. Idle here; they certainly were idlehere! With him I found a secretary, but when he could he preferredalways to write his own letters, in his small, clear, strong hand, andnow he was doing this, propped in bed, in his brow a knot of pain. Hewrote many letters. Long afterwards I heard that it had become a sayingin Spain, "Write of your matters as often as Christopherus Columbus!" I sat waiting for him to finish and he saw my eyes upon yet unfoldedpages strewing the table taken from the _Marigalante_ and set herebeside him. "Read if you like, " he said. "The ships set sail day afterto-morrow. " I took and read in part his letter to a learned man with whom, once ortwice, Jayme de Marchena had talked. It was a long letter in which theAdmiral, thinker to thinker, set forth his second voyage and now hiscity building, and at last certain things for the mind not only of Spainbut of France and Italy and England and Germany. "All lands and allmen whom so far we have come to, " wrote the Admiral, "are heathen andidolaters. In the providence of God all such are given unto Christendom. Christendom must take possession through the acts of Christian princes, under the sanction of Holy Church, allowed by the Pope who is Christ ourKing's Viceroy. Seeming hardship bringeth great gain! Millions of soulsconverted, are baptized. Every infant feeleth the saving water. Soulsthat were lost now are found. Christ beameth on them! To that, what isit that the earthly King of a country be changed?" His quill traveled on over paper. Another sheet came into my hand. Iread it, then sat pondering. He sighed with pain, pushed all aside andpresently bade the secretary forth. When the man was gone he told meof an agony behind his eyes that now stabbed and now laid him in adrowsiness. I did what I could for him then waited until the access wasover. It passed, and he took again his pen. I said, "You advise that there be made a market for Carib slaves, balancing thus the negroes the Portuguese are bringing in, and providinga fund for our needs--" He said, "They are eaters of men's flesh, intractable and abominable, not like the gentler people we find hereabouts! It is certain thatbefore long, fleet after fleet coming, our two thousand here growinginto many thousands, more cities than Isabella arising, commerce andlife as in Europe beginning--Well, these fiercer, Caribal islands willbe overrun, taken for Spain! What better to do with their people? I donot wish to slay them and eat them!" "Slaves--" "How many Moors in Castile and Arragon, slaves and none the worsefor it, being baptized, being kindly enough entreated! And now thePortuguese bring Negroes, and are they the worse off, being taken froma deep damnation? Long ago, I have read, the English were taken to Romeand sold in the market place, and the blessed Gregory, seeing them, cried, 'Christ shall be preached in their nation!' Whereupon he sentAugustine and all England was saved. --Look you, this world is rude andworketh rudely! But it climbs in the teeth of its imperfections!" "I do not doubt that, " I said. "When it wills to climb. " "I do but lay it before the Sovereigns, " he answered. "I do not knowwhat they will think of it there. But truly I know not what else to dowith these Asiatics when they withstand us! And even in slavery theymust gain from Christians! What matters masters when they find the TrueMaster?" Juan Lepe brooded still while the pen scratched and scratched across thepage. The noise ceased. I looked up to see if he were in pain again, andmet gray-blue eyes as longing as a child's. "What I would, " he said, "is that the Lord would give to me forever to sail a great ship, and tofind, forever to find! The sea is wider than the land, and it sends itswaves upon all lands. Not Viceroy, but the Navigator, the Finder--" Juan Lepe also thought that there streamed his Genius. Here he was able, but there played the Fire. But he, like many another, had bound himself. Don Cristoval Colon--Viceroy--and eighths and tenths! CHAPTER XXX TWELVE of our ships went home to Spain. February wheeled by. March was here, and every day the sun sent us moreheat. The Indians around us still were friendly--women and all. From the firstthere was straying in the woods with Indian women. Doubtless now, in theSan Salvador islands, in Cuba and in Hispaniola, among those Guaricosfled from us to the mountains, would be infants born of Spanish fathers. Juan Lepe contemplated that filling in the sea between Asia and Europewith the very blood. Sickness broke out. It was not such as that first sickness at LaNavidad, but here were many more to lie ill. Besides Juan Lepe, we nowpossessed three physicians. They were skillful, they labored hard, weall labored. Men died of the malady, but no great number. But now amongthe idle of mind and soul and the factious arose the eternal murmur. Notheaven but hell, these new lands! Not wealth and happy ease, but povertyand miserable toil! Not forever new spectacle and greedy wonder, buttiresome river, forest and sea, tiresome blue heaven, tiresome delvingand building, tiresome rules, restrictions, commandments, yeas and nays!Parties arose, two main parties, and within each lesser differings. The Viceroy stiffly withstood the party that was not his, and upon someslur and insolence took from a man his office. Followed a week of glassysmoothness. Then suddenly, by chance, was discovered the plot of BernalDiaz de Pisa--the first of many Spanish conspiracies. It involvedseveral hundred men and was no less a thing than the seizure in the darknight of the ships and the setting sail for Spain, there to wreck thefame of Christopherus Columbus and if possible obtain the sending outof some prince over him, who would beam kindly on all hidalgos and neverput them to vulgar work. A letter was found in Bernal Diaz's hand, andif therein any ill was left unsaid of the Admiral and Viceroy, I knownot what it might be! The "Italian", the "Lowborn", the "madly arrogantand ambitious", the "cruel" and "violent", the "tyrant" acted. BernalDiaz was made and kept prisoner on Vicente Pinzon's ship. Of hisfollowing one out of ten lay in prison for a month. Of the seamenconcerned three were flogged and all had their pay estopped. One might say that Isabella was builded. Columbus himself stood andmoved in better health. Now he would go discovering on dry land, toAlonso de Ojeda's glee, glee indeed of many. The mountains of Cibao, where might be the gold, --and gold must be had! And we might find Caonabo, and what peoples were behind our ownmountains, and perhaps come upon Guacanagari. We went, four hundred menand more, an army with banners. We wished to impress, and we took anyand all things that might help in that wise. Drum and trumpet beatand sang. Father Buil was not with us. But three of his missionariesaccompanied us, and they carried a great crucifix. There were twentyhorses, and terrible were these to this land as the elephants of thePersians to the Greeks. And much we marveled that Cuba and Hayti had nomemory nor idea of elephants. A throng of Indians would go with us, andin much they carried our supplies. It was first seen clearly at thistime, I think, the uses that might be drawn from our heathen subjects. Alonso de Ojeda, Juan Ponce de Leon and Pedro Margarite rode with theAdmiral. Others followed on black and bay and white horses. Juan Lepemarched with the footmen. He was glad to find Luis Torres. Before setting out we went to mass in the new church. Candles burned, incense rose in clouds, the friars chanted, the bell rang, we took thewafer, the priest lifted the chalice. The sun rose, the trumpets rang, we were gone. South, before us, themountain line was broken by a deep notch. That would be our pass, afar, and set high, filled with an intense, a burning sapphire. We had Indianguides. Day, evening, camp and night. Dawn, trumpets, breakfast and goodunderstanding and jollity. After breakfast the march, and where wasany road up the heights? And being none we would make one and did, ourhidalgos toiling with the least. By eve we were in the high pass, levelground under our feet, above us magnificent trees. We called it the Passof the Hidalgos. We threw ourselves down and slept. At sunrise we pushedon, and presently saw what Juan Lepe once before had seen, the vastsouthward-lying plain and the golden mountains of Cibao. There rose a cry, it was so beautiful! The Admiral named it Vega Real, the Royal Plain. Sweating, panting, we came at last down that most difficult descentinto rolling forest and then to a small bright stream, beside it gardenpatches and fifty huts. The inhabitants fled madly, we heard theirfrightened shouts and the screaming of children. Thereafter we tried tokeep in advance a small body of Indians, so that they might tell thatthe gods were coming, but that they would not injure. Acclivity and declivity fell away. We were fully in an enormous, fertileand populous plain. The horses and the horsemen! At first they thought that these were one. When some cowering group was surrounded and kept from breaking away, when Alonso de Ojeda or another leaped from steed to earth, from earthagain to steed, they moaned with astonishment and some relief. But thehorses, the horses--never to have seen any great four-footed things, and now these that were proud and pawed the earth and neighed and--DeOjeda's black horse--reared, curvetted, bounded, appeared to threaten!The eyes, the mane, the great teeth!--There grew a legend that they werefed upon men's flesh, red men's flesh! How many red men were in Quisquaya I do not know. In some regions theydwelled thickly, in others were few folk. In this wide, long, laughingplain dwelled many, in clean towns sunk among trees good to look at anddropping fruit; by river or smaller stream, with plantings of maize, batata, cassava, jucca, maguey, and I know not what beside. If thestream was a considerable one, canoes. They had parrots; they had thesmall silent dogs. In some places we saw clay pots and bowls. They wovetheir cotton, though not very skillfully. They crushed their maizein hand mills. We found caciques and butios, and heard of their maincacique, Gwarionex. But he did not come to meet us; they said he hadgone on a visit to Caonabo in Cibao. They brought us food and took ourgifts in exchange; they harangued us in answer to our harangues; theymade dances for us. The children thronged around, fearless now andcurious. The women were kind. Old men and women together, and sometimesmore women than men, sat in a council ring about some venerable tree. There was no quarrel and no oppression upon this adventure. I look backand I see that single journey in Hispaniola a flower and pattern of whatmight be. They gave us what gold they had--freely--and we gave in return thingsthat they prized. But always they said Cibao for gold. We rode and marched afoot, with many halts and turns aside, five leaguesacross plain. A large river barred our way, --the Yaqui they calledit. Here we spent two days in a village a bowshot from the water. Wesearched for gold, we sent from Indian to Indian rumor that it was thehighest magic, god-magic that of all things in the world we most desiredand took it from their hands, yet still we paid for it in goods forwhich they lusted, and we neither forced nor threatened force. Andthough we were four hundred, yet there might be in the Royal Plain fortythousand, and their hue and their economy was yet prince in the land, and the Spaniard a visitor. And there commanded the four hundred ahumane man, with something of the guilelessness of the child. We crossed the Yaqui in canoes and upon rafts. White, brown and black, the horses swam the stream. Again nigh impenetrable forest, againvillages, again clear singing and running waters. But ever the mountainscame closer. At last we entered hilly country and the streams pushedwith rapidity, flowing to the Yaqui, flowing to the sea. Now we began tofind gold. It glistened in the river sands. Sometimes we found nuts ofit, washed from the rocks far above. There came upon us the gold fever. Mines--we must open mines! Fermin Cedo, our essayer, would have it thatit was not Ophir, but at that time he was hardly believed. The Admiralwrote a letter about these golden mines. An Indian brought him a piece of amber; another, a lump of blue stone. We found jasper, we were sure of copper. We came to a natural rampart, wide at top, steeply descending on threesides, set in a loop of a little clear river named Yanique. "Ho!" criedAlonso de Ojeda. "Here is the cradle for the babe! Round tower, walls, barbican yonder, and Mother Nature has dug the moat!" He sent his voiceacross to the Viceroy. "A fort, senor, a fort!" Council was held by the Yanique. A fort, --a luckier than La Navidad!Men left here to collect gold, establish a road, keep communication withIsabella which in turn should forward supplies and men. The returningfleet might bring two thousand--nay, five thousand men! It wouldcertainly bring asses and mules as well as horses. We should haveburden-bearers. Moreover, a company of Indians might be trained tocome and go as carriers. Train them, set some sort of penalty formalfeasance. "They should be taught to mine for us, " said Pedro Margarite. "Pay them?Of course--of course! But do not pay them too much. Do not we protectthem from Caribs and save their souls to boot? Take it as tribute!" Itwas the first time the word was said, in Spanish, here. We built a fort much after the model of La Navidad and named it St. Thomas. When after days it was done, and commandant must be chosen, theViceroy's choice fell upon Pedro Margarite. And that was great pity. But he could not know Margarite then as afterwards he came to know him. Fifty-six men he left with Margarite, and the rest of us marched homeacross the Vega and the northern mountains to Isabella. Sickness. Quarrels. Idleness, vanity, dissensions and accusations. Heat, more sickness, wild quarrels. Tidings from Margarite at St. Thomas. The Indians would no longer bringfood. Caonabo was threatening from the higher mountains. The Viceroywrote to Margarite. Compel the Indians to bring food, but as it were tocompel them gently! Quarrels--quarrels at Isabella. Two main parties and all the lesserones. Disease and scarcity. Fray Geronimo arrived from St. Thomas. He had stories. The Viceroy grew dark red, his eyes lightened. Yet hebelieved that what was told pertained to men of Margarite, not tothat cavalier himself. He wrote to Margarite--I do not know what. Butpresently a plan arose in his mind and was announced. Don Alonso deOjeda was to command St. Thomas. Don Pedro Margarite should have amoving force of several hundred Castilians, mainly for exploration, butat need for other things. Going here and there about the country, itmight impress upon Caonabo that the Spaniard though gentle by nature, was dangerous when aroused. Alonso de Ojeda, three hundred men behind him, went forth on his blackhorse, to trumpet and drum, very gay and ready to go. In a week hesent into Isabella six Indians in chains. These had set upon three ofMargarite's men coming with a letter to the Viceroy and had robbed them, though without doing them bodily injury. Alonso de Ojeda had cut offtheir ears and sent them all in heavily chained. The Viceroy condemnedthem to be beheaded, but when they were on their knees before the blockreprieved them, one by one. He kept them chained for a time for allvisiting Indians to see, then formally pardoned them and let them go. Matters quieted. Sickness again sank, a flood retiring, leaving pools. Alonso de Ojeda and Pedro Margarite reported peace in Hispaniola. TheAdmiral came forth from his house one day and said quietly to this oneand that one that now he meant again to take up Discovery. He gave authority in Isabella to Don Diego, and made him a council wheresat Father Buil, Caravajal, Coronel and Juan de Luxan. Then out of fiveships we took the _Cordera_, the _Santa Clara_ and the _San Juan_, andwe set sail on April the twenty-fourth. CHAPTER XXXI THE island, we learned, was named Jamaica. The Admiral called itSantiago, but it also rests Jamaica. Of all these lands, outside of the low, small islands to which we camefirst, Cuba seemed to us the peaceable land. Jamaica gave us almostCarib welcome. Its folk had the largest canoes, the sharpest, toughestlances. Perhaps they had heard from some bold sea rover that we hadcome, but that we were not wholly gods! Our crossbow men shot amongst them. The arrows failed to halt them, but when we sent a bloodhound the dog did our work. It was to them whatgriffon or fire-breathing dragon might be to a Seville throng. When thecreature sprang among them they uttered a great cry and fled. Jamaica ismost beautiful. For not a few days we visited, sailing and anchoring, lifting againand stopping again. Once the people were pacified, they gave us kindlyenough welcome, trading and wondering. We slipped by bold coasts andheadlands which we must double, mountains above us. They ran by inlandpaths, saving distance, telling village after village. When we madeharbor, here was the thronged beach. Some of these people wore a slightdress of woven grass and palm leaves, and they used crowns of brightfeathers. We got from them in some quantity golden ornaments. But southfor gold, south--south, they always pointed south! The _Cordera_, the _Santa Clara_ and the _San Juan_ set sail out of theHarbor of Good Weather, in Santiago or Jamaica. A day and a night ofpleasant sailing, then we saw the great Cuba coast rise blue in thedistance. The weather wheeled. There was first a marvelous green hush, while clouds formed out ofnothing. We heard a moaning sound and we did not know its quarter. Thesea turned dead man's color. Then burst the wind. It was more thanwind; it seemed the movement of a world upon us. Bare of all sails, we labored. We were driven, one from the other. The mariners fell topraying. A strange light was around us, as though the tempest itself made alight. By it I marked the Admiral, upright where he could best commandthe whole. He had lashed himself there, for the ship tossed excessively. His great figure stood; his white, blowing hair, in that strange light, made for him a nimbus. It was strange, how the light seemed to seizethat and his brow and his gray-blue eyes. Below the eyes his lips moved. He was shouting encouragement, but only the intention could be heard. The intention was heard. He looked what he was, something more than abold man and a brave sea captain, and there streamed from him comfort. It touched his mariners; it came among them like tongues of flame. Darkness increased. We were now among lightnings like javelins and loudthunder. Then fell the rain, in torrents, in drops large as plums. Itwas as though another ocean was descending upon us. It lasted and we endured. After long while came lessening in that weightof rain, and then cessation. Suddenly the tempest was over. There shonea star--three stars and on topmast and bowsprit Saint Elmo's lights. Our mariners shouted, "Safe--safe! Saint Elmo!" Suddenly, over all the sky, were stars shining. The Admiral raised hisgreat voice. "Sing, all of us! 'Stella Maris--Sancta Maria!'" With the morning the _Santa Clara_ and the _San Juan_, beaten about, some injury done, but alive! And the coast of Cuba, nearer, nearer, talland blue--and at last very tall and green and gold. Off Cuba and still off Cuba, the southern coast now, as against thenorthern that once we tried for a while. Sail and come to land, stay abit, and shake out sails once more! Wherever we tarried we found peaceable if vastly excited Indians. But still naked, but still unwise as to gold and spices, traders andmarkets. Cambalu, Quinsai and Zaiton of the marble bridges! "'Somewhere, ' saith Messer Marco, 'in part the country is savage, filledwith mountains, and here come few strangers, for the king will not havethem, in order that his treasures and certain matters of his kingdomcome not into the world's knowledge. ' And again he saith, 'The folk hereare naked. '--What wonder then, " said the Admiral, "that we find thesethings! Yea, I feel surprised at the incessancy, but I check myself andthink, how vast is Asia, and what variousness must needs be!" But we moved in a cloud of differences, and while on the one hand thisworld was growing familiar, on the other the sense increased. "How vastindeed must be Asia, if all this and yet we come not--and now it isgoing on two years--to any clear hint of other than this!" He himself, the Admiral, began to feel this strangeness. Or rather, he had long felt it and fought the feeling, but now strongly it camecreeping over. We were among the hugest number of small islands. Starboard loomed, until it was lost in the farness, that coast that we were following, butthe three ships were in a half-land, half-water world. We wandered inthis labyrinth, keeping with difficulty our way, so crooked and narrowthe channels, so many the sandbars. From deck it minded me of that seaof weed we met in the first passage. Waves of fragrance struck us. "Ha!" cried the Admiral. "Can you notsmell cinnamon, spikenard, nutmeg, cloves and galingal?" His faith wasso strong that we did smell. From one of these islands, the _Cordera_lying at anchor and a boat going ashore, we took a number of pigeons. Sounafraid were these birds that our men approached them easily and beatthem down with a pike. We had them for supper, and when their cropswere opened, the cook found and brought to the Admiral a number ofbrown seeds. The Admiral dropped them into clear water, then smelled andtasted. "Cloves? Are they not cloves?" He gave to Juan de la Cosa and tome who also tasted and thought they might be cloves. But we did not findtheir tree, and we saw no signs of ever a merchant of Cathay or Mangi orInd. Christopherus Columbus leaned upon the rail of the _Cordera_. In thisislet world we lay at anchor for the night. "Do you know what it is, " heasked, "to have a word color the whole day long?" He glanced around, butnone was very near. "My Word to-day is _magic_. I'd not give it to anybut you, and I drop my voice in saying it. I'll sail on through magicand against magic, for I have Help from Above! But I'll not lay afearsome word among those who are not so accorded! All say India hathhigh magic, and the Grand Khan takes from that country his astrologersand sorcerers. I have read that at Shandu, if there be long raining, they will mount a tower by the palace and wave it back, so that thefalling rain makes but a pleasant wall around the king's fair gardenthat itself rests in sunshine. Also that without touching them theycause the golden flagons to fill with red wine and to move through air, with no hand upon them, to the king's table. That was long ago. We havehad no news of them of late. They may do now more marvelous, vasterthings. " "And the moral?" "I said, 'They do them there. ' Perhaps this is there. " "I take you!" I said and half-laughed. "We may be in Cathay all thiswhile, under the golden roofs, with the bells strung from the eaves. Yonder line of cranes standing in the shallow water, watching us, may, God wot, be tall magicians in white linen and scarlet silk!" He crossed himself. The cranes had lifted themselves and flown away. "Ifthey heard--" "Are you in earnest?" He put his hands over his eyes. "Sometimes I think it may be fact, sometimes not! Sorcery is a fact, and who knows how far it may go? Attimes my brain is like to crack, I have so cudgeled it!" That he cudgeled it was true, and though his brain never cracked andto the end was the best brain in a hundred, yet from this time forth Ibegan to mark in him an unearthliness. These islands we named the Queen's Gardens, and escaping from them cameagain to clean coast. On we went for two days, and this part of Cuba hadmany villages, at sea edge or a little from the water, and all men andwomen were friendly and brought us gifts. I remember a moonlight night. All were aboard the _Cordera_, the _SantaClara_ and the _San Juan_, for we meant to sail at dawn. We had lefta village yet dancing and feasting. The night was a miracle of silver. Again I stood beside Christopherus Columbus; from land streamed theirsinging and their thin, drumming and clashing music. At hand it israther harsh than sweet, but distance sweetened it. "What will be here in the future--if there are not already here, afteryour notion, great cities and bridges and shipping, and only our eyesholden and our hands and steps made harmless? Or nearly harmless, for wehave slain some Indians!" He had made a gesture of deprecation. "Ah, that, I hardly doubt, was myfancy! But in the future I see them, your cities!" "Do you see them, from San Salvador onward and everywhere, --Spanishcities?" "Necessarily--seeing that the Holy Father hath given the whole of theland to Spain. " He looked at the moon that was so huge and bright, andlistened to the savage music. "If we go far enough--walking afar--whoknoweth what we shall find?" He stood motionless. "_I_ do not know. Itis in God's hands!" "Do you see, " I asked, "a great statue of yourself?" "Yes, I see that. " The moon shone so brightly it was marvel. Land breeze brought perfumefrom the enormous forest. "It is too fair to sleep!" said the Admiral. "I will sit here and think. " He slept little at any time. His days were filled with action. Neverwas any who had more business to attend to! Yet he was of those to whomsolitude is as air, --imperiously a necessity. Into it he plunged throughevery crack and cranny among events. He knew how to use the spacein which swim events. But beside this he must make for himself wideholdings, and when he could not get them by day he took from night. We came again to a multitude of islets like to the Queen's Gardens. Andthese were set in a strange churned and curdled sea, as white as milk. Making through it as best we might, we passed from that silverness andbroken land into a great bay or gulf, so deep that we might hardly findbottom, and here we anchored close to a long point of Cuba covered thickwith palms. We went ashore for water and fruit. Solitary--neither man nor woman! Wefound tracks upon the sand that some among us would have it were madeby griffons. One of our men had the thought that he might procure somelarge bird for the Admiral's table. Taking a crossbow he passed alonethrough the palms into the deeper wood. He was gone an hour, and when hereturned it was in haste, with a chalk face and great eyes. I was seatedin the boat with the master of the _Cordera_ and heard his tale. He hadfound what he thought a natural aisle of the forest and had stolendown it, looking keenly for pigeon or larger bird. A tree with droopingbranches stood across the aisle, he said. He went around the trunk, which was a great one, and it was as though he had turned into the naveof the cathedral. There was space, but trees like pillars on eitherside, and at the end three great trees covered to the tops with vine andpurple grapes. And here he saw before him, under the greatest tree, a man in a long white gown like a White Friar. The sight halted him, turned him, he averred, to stone. Two more men in white dresses butshorter than that of the first, came from among the trees and he sawbehind these a number in like clothing. He could not tell, now hethought of it, if they were carrying lances or palms. We had looked solong for clothed folk that it was the white clothes he thought of. Thesame with their faces--he could not tell about them--he thought theywere fair. Suddenly, it seemed, Pan had fallen upon him and put himforth in terror. He had turned and raced through the forest, here to thesea. He did not think the white-clad men had seen him. We took him to the Admiral who listened, then brought his handstogether. "Hath it not--hath it not, I ask you--sound of Prester John?" With the dawn he had men ashore, and there he went himself, withhim Juan de la Cosa and Juan Lepe. The crossbowman--it was FelipeGarcia--showed the way. We found indeed the forest aisle and nave, andthe three trees and the purple grapes, a vast vine with heavy clusters, but we found no men and no sign of men. The Admiral was not discouraged. "If he truly saw then, and I believe hedid, then are they somewhere--" We beat all the neighborhood. Solitary, solitary! He divided the mostdetermined of us--so many from each ship--into two bands and sent intwo directions. We were to search, if necessary, through ten leagues. We went, but returned empty of news of clothed men. We found desolateforest, and behind that a vast, matted, low growth, impenetrable andextending far away. At last we determined that Felipe Garcia had seenwhite cranes. Unless it were magic-- We sailed on and we sailed on. The _Cordera_, the _Santa Clara_ andthe _San Juan_ were in bad case, hurt in that storm between Jamaica andCuba, and wayworn since in those sandy seas, among those myriad islets. Our seamen and our shipmasters now loudly wished return to Isabella. He pushed us farther on and farther on, and still we did not come toanything beyond those things we had already reached, nor did we comeeither to any end of Cuba. And what was going on in Hispaniola--inIsabella? We had sailed in April and now it was July. It became evident to him at last that he must turn. The Viceroy and theAdmiral warred in him, had long warred and would war. Better for him hadhe never insisted upon viceroyship! Then, single-minded, he might havediscovered to the end of his days. We turned, the _Cordera_, the _Santa Clara_ and the _San Juan_, andstill he believed that the long, long coast of Cuba was the coast of theAsia main. He saw it as a monster cape or prolongation, sprouting intoOcean-Sea as sprouts Italy into Mediterranean. Back--back--the waywe had come, entering again that white sea, entangled again among athousand islets! At last we came again to that Cape of the Cross to which we had escapedin the Jamaica tempest. One thing he would yet do in this voyage andthat was to go roundabout homeward by Jamaica and find out furtherthings of that great and fair island. We left Cuba that still we thoughtwas the main. Santiago or Jamaica rose before us, dark blue mountainsout of the dark blue sea. For one month we coasted this island, foralways the weather beat us back when we would quit it, setting our sailsfor Hispaniola. We came to Hayti upon the southern side, and because of somemisreckoning failed of knowing that it was Hayti, until an Indian in acanoe below us, called loudly "El Almirante!" And yet Isabella was thethickness of the island from us, and the weather becoming foul, we beatabout for long days, struggling eastward and pushed back, and againparting upon a stormy night one ship from the others. The _Cordera_anchored by a tall, rocky islet and rode out the storm. Here, when itwas calm, we went ashore, but found no man, only an unreckonable numberof pigeons. The Admiral lay on clean, warm sand and rested with his eyesshut. I was glad we were nigh to Isabella and his house there, for I didnot think him well. He sat up, embracing his great knees and looking atthe sea and the _Cordera_. "I have been thinking, Doctor. " "For your health, my Admiral, I wish you could rest a while fromthinking!" "We were upon the south side of Mangi. I am assured of that! Could I, this time, have sailed on--Now I see it!" He dropped his hands from his knees and turned full toward me. I sawthat lying thus for an hour he had gathered strength and now was passed, as he was wont to pass after quiet, into a high degree of vision, accompanied by forth-going energy. "Now I see, and as soon as I may, I will do! Beyond Mangi, Champa. Beyond Champa, the coast trendingsouthward, India of the Ganges and the Golden Chersonese. Land ofGold--Land of Gold!--are they not forever pointing southward? But itis not of gold--or wholly gold--that now I think! _Aurea Chersonesus_maketh a vast peninsula, greater maybe than Italy, Greece and Spaintaken together. But I will round it, and I will come to the mouth ofGanges! Then again, I read, we go southward! There is the Kingdom ofMaabar where Saint Thomas is buried, and the Kingdom of Monsul where thediamonds are found. Then we come to the Island of Zeilan, where is theTomb of our Father Adam. Here are sapphires, amethysts, topaz, garnetand rubies. There is a ruby here beyond price, large as a man's twofists and a well of red fire. But what I should think most of would beto stand where Adam laid him down. --Now from the Island of Zeilan I sailacross the India sea. And I go still south, three hundred leagues, and Ifind the great island of Madagascar whose people are Saracens and thereis the rukh-bird that can lift an elephant, and they cut the red sandalthere and find ambergris. Then lifteth Zanzibar whose women are monstersand where the market is in elephant teeth. And so I come at last tothe extremity of Africa which Bartholomew Diaz found--my brother, DonBartholomew being with him--and named Good Hope. So I round Good Hope, and I come home by Cape Bojador which I myself have seen. I will passFez and Ercilla and the straits and Cadiz. I will enter the River Sagresat Palos, for there was where I first put forth. The bells of La Rabidawill ring, for a thing is done that was never done before, and thatwill not cease to resound! I shall have sailed around the earth. Christopherus Columbus. Ten ships. Ten chances of there being one inwhich I may come home!" "There have been worse dreams!" said Juan Lepe. "I warrant you! But I am not dreaming. " He rose and stood with arms outstretched, crosswise. "'Nought is hid, ' saith Scripture, 'but shall be found!' Here is Earth. Do you not think that one day we shall go all about it? Aye, freely, freely! With zest and joy, discovering that it is a loved home. Forevery road some man or men broke the clods!" They hailed us from the _Cordera_. One had seen from topmast the _SantaClara_. Still we sailed by the south coast of Hispaniola. We knew now that itwas not Cipango. But it was a great island, natheless, and one day mightbe as Cipango. Beata, Soana, Mona were the little islands that we found. We sailed between them and our great island, and at last we came to thecorner and turned northward, and again after days to another corner andsailed west once more, with hopes now of Isabella. It was the first weekin September. In a great red dawn, Roderigo, the Admiral's servant, roused Juan Lepe. "Come--come--come, Doctor!" I sprang from my bed and followed him. Christopherus Columbus lay in adeep swoon. Round he came from that and said, "Roderigo, tell them thatI am perfectly well, but wish to see no one!" From that, he came torecognize me. "Doctor, I am tired. God and Our Lady only know how tiredI am!" His eyes shut, his head sank deep into the bed. He said not anotherword, that day nor the next nor the next. Roderigo and I forced him toswallow a little food and wine, and once he rose and made as if to goon deck. But we laid him down again and he sank into movelessness and asleep of all the faculties. Juan de la Cosa took care of the _Cordera_. So we sighted Isabella and in the harbor four caravels that had not beenthere when we had sailed in April. CHAPTER XXXII TWO men came into the cabin, Don Diego Colon, left in charge ofHispaniola, and with him a tall, powerful, high-featured man, gray ofeye and black and silver of hair and short beard. As he stood besidethe bed, one saw that he must be kinsman to the man who lay upon it. "OBartholomew! And is this the end?" cried Don Diego, and I knew that thestranger was that brother, Bartholomew, for whom the Admiral longed. These three brothers! One lay like a figure upon a tomb save for thebreathing that stirred his silver hair. One, Don Diego, tall, too, andstrong, but all of a gentle, quiet mien sank on his knees and seemed topray. One, Don Bartholomew, stood like rock or pine, but he slowly madethe sign of the cross, and I saw his gray eyes fill. It seemed to methat the Admiral's eyelids flickered. "Speak to him again, " I said. "Take his hand. " Bartholomew Columbus, kneeling in the _Cordera's_ cabin, put his armabout his great brother. That is what he called him, --"Christopher, mygreat brother, it is Bartholomew! Don't you know me? Don't you remember?I must go to England, you said, to see King Henry. To tell him what youcould do--what you have done, my great brother! Don't you remember? Iwent, but I was poor like you who are now Viceroy of the Indies--and Iwas shipwrecked besides and lost the little that we had scraped--do youremember?--and must live like you by making maps and charts, and it waslong before I saw King Henry!--Christopher, my great brother! He lieslike death!" I said, "He is returning, but he is yet a long way off. Keep speaking. " "But King Henry said at last, 'Go bring us that brother of yours, andwe think it may be done!' And he gave me gold. So I would come backto Spain for you, and I reached Paris, and it was the summer of 1493. Christopher, my great brother, don't you hear me? For it was at Paristhat I heard, and it came like a flood of glory, fallen in one momentfrom Heaven! I heard, 'Christopherus Columbus! He has found the Indiesfor King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella!'--Don't you hear, Christopher?All the world admiring--all the world saying, 'Nothing will ever go justthe same way again!' You have done the greatest thing, my great brother!Doctor, is he dying?" "He will not die, " I said. "You are cordial to him, though he hears youyet from leagues and leagues away. Go on!" "Christopher, from Paris I got slowly, slowly, so slowly I thoughtit!--to Seville. But I was not poor. They gave me gold, the French Kinggave it, their nobles, their bishops. I walked in that glory; it floodedme from you! All your people, Christopher, your sons and your brothersand our old father. You build us again, you are our castle and greatship and Admiral! When I came to Barcelona, how they praised you! WhenI came to Toledo, how they praised you! When I came to Seville, how theypraised you! But at Seville I learned that I was too late, and you weregone upon your second voyage. Then I went to Valladolid and the Queenand the King were there, and they said, 'He has just sailed, DonBartholomew, from Cadiz with sixteen ships--your great brother whohath crossed Ocean-Sea and bound to us Asia!'--But, sweet Jesu, whatentertainment they gave me, all because I had lain in our old woodencradle at Genoa a couple of years or so after you!--Genoa!--They sayGenoa _aches_ because she did not send you. Christopher, do you rememberthe old rock by the sea--and you begged colors from Messer Ludovico andpainted upon it a ship and we called it the Great Doge--" The Admiral's eyes opened slowly like a gray dawn; he moved ever soslightly in the bed, and his lips parted. "Brother, " he whispered. We got him from the _Cordera_ to Hispaniola shore, and so in a litter tohis own house in Isabella. All our town was gathered to see him carriedthere. He began to improve. The second day he said to Don Bartholomew, "You shall be my lieutenant and deputy. Adelantado--I name youAdelantado. " Don Bartholomew said bluntly, "Is not that hard upon Diego?" "No, no, Bartholomew!" answered Don Diego, who was present. "If it werequestion of a prior of Franciscans, now! But Christopher knows and Iknow that I took this stormy world but for lack of any other in blood toserve him. Our Lady knows that I never held myself to be the man for theplace! Be Adelantado and never think of me!" The Admiral upon his bed spoke. "We have always worked together, weColombos. When it is done for the whole there is no jealousy among theparts. I love Diego, and I think he did well, constraining his nature toit, here among the selfish, the dangerous and factious! And others knowthat he did well. I love him and praise him. But Bartholomew, thou artthe man for this!" Accordingly, the next noontide, trumpets, and a proclamation madebefore the great cross in the middle of our town. The Viceroy's new-comebrother had every lieutenant power. I do not know if he ever disappointed or abused it. He became greathelper to his great brother. These three! They were a lesson in what brothers might be, one to theother, making as it were a threefold being. Power was in this family, power of frame and constitution, with vital spirit in abundance; powerof will, power of mind, and a good power of heart. Their will was goodtoward mankind. They had floods to surmount and many a howling tempest to out-endure. By and large they did well with life, --very well. There was alloy, basemetal of course, even in the greatest of the three. They were stillmen. But they were such men as Nature might put forward among her goodlyfruit. The Viceroy lay still in his bed, for each time he would rise camefaintness and old fatigue. The Adelantado acted. There was storm in Hispaniola, storm of human passions. I found LuisTorres, and he put me within leg-stride of the present. Margarite! It seemed to begin with Don Pedro Margarite. He and his men had early made choice between the rich, the fruitful, easy Vega and the mountains they were to pierce for gold and hunt overfor a fierce mountain chief. In the Vega they established themselves. The Indians brought them "tribute", and they exacted over-tribute, andreviled and slew when it pleased them, and they took the Indian women, and if it pleased them they burned a village. "Sorry tale, " said Luis. "Old, sorry tale!" Indians came to Isabella and with fierce gesture and eyes that castlances talked to Don Diego. Don Diego sent a stern letter to Don PedroMargarite. Don Pedro answered that he was doing soldier's duty, as theSovereigns would understand when it came before them. Don Diego sentagain, summoning him upon his allegiance to Isabella. He chose for amonth no answer to that at all, and the breezes still brought fromthe Vega cries of anger, wails of sorrow. Then he appeared suddenly inIsabella. Don Diego would have arrested him and laid him in prison to await theAdmiral's return. But with suddenness, that was of truth no suddenness, Margarite had with him three out of four of our hidalgos, and more thanthat, our Apostolic Vicar of the Indies! Don Diego must bend aside, speak him fair, remonstrate, not command. The Viceroy of the Indiesand Admiral of Ocean-Sea? Dead probably!--and what were these Colombos?Italian wool-combers! But here stood hidalgos of Spain!--"Oldstory, " said Luis Torres. "Many times, many places, man being one inimperfection. " A choppy sea had followed Margarite's return. Up and down, to and fro, and one day it might seem Margarite was in control, and the next, DonDiego, but with Margarite's wave racing up behind. Then appeared threeships with men and supplies and Don Bartholomew! Margarite saw Don Diegostrengthened. He was bold enough, Margarite! on a dark night, at eve, there were so many ships before Isabella but when morn broke theywere fewer by two. Margarite and the Apostolic Vicar and a hundreddisaffected were departed the Indies! "Have they gotten to Spain? Andwhat do they say? God, He knoweth!--There have been great men and theyhave been stung to death. " "Ay, ay, the old story!" I said, and would learn about the pacificationof the Indians. "Why, they are not pacified, " answered Luis. "Worse follows worse. PedroMargarite left two bands in the Vega, and from all I hear they turneddevils. It looked like peace itself, didn't it, this great, fair, newland, when first we stepped upon it, and raised the banner and then thecross? It's that no longer. They're up, the Indians, Caonabo and threemain caciques, and all the lesser ones under these. In short, we areat war, " ended Luis. "Alonso de Ojeda at the moment is the Cid. Hemaneuvers now in the Vega. " I looked around. We were sitting under palm trees, by the mud wall ofour town. Beyond the forest waved in the wind, and soft white cloudssailed over it in a sky of essential sapphire. "There's an aspect hereof peace!" "That is because Guacanagari, from his new town, holds his people still. For that Indian the scent of godship has not yet departed! He sees theAdmiral always as a silver-haired hero bringing warmth and light. Heis like a dog for fidelity!--But I saw three Indians from outside hiscountry curse him in the name of all the other tribes, with a kindof magical ceremony. Is he right, or is he wrong, Juan Lepe? Or is heneither the one nor the other, but Something moves him from above?" "Have you never seen again the butio, Guarin?" "No. " We sat and looked at the rich forest, and at that strange, rude, smalltown called Isabella, and at the blue harbor with the ships, and theblue, blue sea beyond. Over us--what is over us? Something seemed tocome from it, stealing down the stair to us! The fourth day after his return, Don Francisco de Las Casas, Don JuanPonce de Leon, and others told to the Viceroy, lying upon his bed in hishouse, much what Luis Torres told Juan Lepe. "Sirs, " he said, when theyhad done, "here is my brother, Don Bartholomew, who will take order. He is as myself. For Christopherus Columbus, he is ill, and must be illawhile. " The sixth day came Guacanagari, and sat in the room and talkedsorrowfully. Caonabo, Gwarionex, Behechio, Cotubanama, said, "Were theseor were these not gods, yet would they fight!" The Admiral said, "The Future is the god. But there are burrs on hisskirt!" Guacanagari at last would depart. He stood beside the bed and thesilver-haired great cacique from heaven. The Admiral put forth a lean, knotted, powerful hand and laid it on the brown, slim, untoiled hand. "Iwish peace, " he said. "My brother Bartholomew and I will do what we cando to gain it. Good peace, true peace!" Without the room, I asked the cacique about Guarin. He was gone, hesaid, to the mountains. He would not stay with Guacanagari, and he wouldnot go to Caonabo or Gwarionex. "All old things and ways are broken, "said Guacanagari. "All our life is broken. I do not know what we havedone. The women sit and weep. And I, too, sometimes I weep!" The seventh day came in Alonso de Ojeda from St. Thomas. The Viceroy and the Adelantado and Ojeda talked alone together inthe Viceroy's house. But next day was held a great council, allour principal men attending. There it was determined to capture, if possible, Caonabo, withdrawing him so from the confederacy. Theconfederacy might then go to pieces. In the meantime use every effortto detach from it Gwarionex who after Guacanagari was our nearestgreat cacique. Send a well-guarded, placating embassy to him and toCotubanama. Try kindness, kindness everywhere, kind words and gooddeeds!--And build another fort called Fort Concepcion. Take Caonabo! That was a task for Alonso de Ojeda! He did it. Five daysafter the council, the Viceroy being now recovered and bringing strengthto work that needed strength, the Adelantado vigorously helping, Isabella in a good mood, the immediate forest all a gold and greenpeacefulness, Don Alonso vanished, and with him fourteen picked men, allmounted. For six weeks it was as though he had dropped into the sea, or riseninto the blue sky above eyesight. Then on a Sunday he and his fourteen rode into town. We had a greatchurch bell and it was ringing, loudly, sonorously. He rode in and atonce there arose a shout, "Don Alonso de Ojeda!" All his horsemen rodewith him, and rode also one who was not Castilian. On a gray steed abare, bronze figure--Caonabo! The church bell swung, the church bell rang. Riding beneath the squattower, all our people pouring forth from our poor houses upon thereturned and his captive, the latter had eyes, it seemed to me, butfor that bell. A curious, sardonic look of recognition, appraisal, relinquishment, sat in the Indian's face. From wrist to wrist of Caonabowent a bright, short chain. The sun glittered upon the bracelets and thelinks. I do not know--there was for a moment--something in the sound ofthe bell, something in the gleam of the manacles, that sent out faintpity and horror and choking laughter. All to the Viceroy's house, and Don Alonso sitting with ChristopherusColumbus, and Caonabo brought to stand before them. Indians make much ofindifferent behavior, taunting calm, when taken. It is a point of honor, meeting death so, even when, as often befalls, their death is a slow andhard one. Among themselves, in their wars, it is either death or quickadoption into the victor's tribe. They have no gaols nor herds ofslaves. Caonabo expected death. He stood, a strong, contemptuous figure. But the Viceroy meant to send him to Spain--trophy and show, and to bemade, if it could be, Christian. CHAPTER XXXIII IT did not end the war. For a fortnight we thought that it had doneso. Then came loud tidings. Caonabo's wife, Anacaona, had put on thelioness. With her was Caonabo's brother Manicoatex and her own brotherBehechio, cacique of Xaragua. There was a new confederacy, Gwarionexagain was with it. Only Guacanagari remained. Don Alonso marched, andthe Adelantado marched. At dawn one morning, four sails. We all poured forth to watch themgrow bigger and yet bigger. Four ships from Cadiz, Antonio de Torrescommanding, and with him colonists of the right kind, mechanics andhusbandmen. Many proposals, much of order, came with Torres. The Admiral hadgracious letters from the Queen, letters somewhat cooler from KingFerdinand, a dry, dry letter from Fonseca. Moreover Torres brought ageneral letter to all colonists in Hispaniola. The moral of which was, Trust and Obey the Viceroy of the Indies, the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea! "Excellent good!" said Luis Torres. "Don Pedro Margarite and theApostolic Vicar had not reached Cadiz when Don Antonio sailed!" The Admiral talked with me that night. Gout again crippled him. He layhelpless, now and then in much pain. "I should go home with Antonio deTorres, but I cannot!" "You are not very fit to go. " "I do not mean my body. My will could drag that on ship. But I cannotleave Hispaniola while goes on formal war. But see you, Doctor, what agreat thing their Majesties plan for, and what courtesy and respect theyshow me! See how the Queen writes!" I knew that it was balm and wine to him, how she wrote. The matter inquestion was nothing more or less than an amicable great meeting betweenthe two sovereigns and the King of Portugal, the wisest subjects of bothattending. A line was to be drawn from top to bottom of Ocean-Sea, andPortugal might discover to the east of it, and Spain to the west! TheHoly Father would confirm, and so the mighty spoil be justly divided. Every great geographer should come into counsel. The greatest of themall, the Discoverer, surely so! The Queen urged the Admiral's presence. But he could not go. Sense of duty to his Viceroyship held him as withchains. Then Bartholomew? But Bartholomew was greatly needed for thewar. He sent Don Diego, a gentle, able man who longed for a cloister anda few hundred monks, fatherly, admirably, to rule. Antonio de Torres stayed few weeks in Hispaniola. The Viceroy andAdmiral would have his letter in the royal hands. Torres took that andtook gold and strange plants, and also six hundred Indian captives to besold for slaves. War went on in Hispaniola, but not for long. We had horses andbloodhounds and men in armor, trained in the long Moorish strife. Therewas a battle in the Vega that ended as it must end. Behechio and Anacaona fled to the high mountains. Manicoatex andGwarionex sued for peace. It was granted, but a great tribute wasimposed. Now all Hayti must gather gold for Spain. Now began, a little to-day and a little to-morrow, long woe for Hayti!It was the general way of our Age. But our Age sinned. The year wheeled to October. Juan Aguado came with four caravels toIsabella, and he brought letters of a different tenor from thosethat Torres brought. We heard in them the voice of Margarite and theApostolic Vicar. But now the Admiral was well again, the Indians defeated, Hispaniolabasking in what we blithely called peace. Aguado came to examine andinterrogate. He had his letters. "Cavaliers, esquires and others, youare to give Don Juan Aguado faith and credit. He is with you on our partto look into--" Aguado looked with a hostile eye toward Viceroy and Adelantado. Wherewas a malcontent he came secretly if might be, if not openly, to Aguado. Whoever had a grudge came; whoever thought he had true injury. Every onewho disliked Italians, fire-new nobles, sea captains dubbed Admirals andViceroys came. Every one who had been restrained from greed, lust andviolence came. Those who held an honest doubt as to some one policy, oract, questioned, found their mere doubt become in Aguado's mind damningcertainty. And so many good Spaniards dead in war, and so many ofpestilence, and such thinness, melancholy, poverty in Isabella! Andwhere was the gold? And was this rich Asia of the spices, the elephants, the beautiful thin cloths and the jewels? The friends of ChristopherusColumbus had their say also, but suddenly there arose all the enemies. "When he sails home, I will sail with him!" said the Admiral, "My nameis hurt, the truth is wounded!" In the third week of Aguado's visit, arose out of far ocean and rushedupon us one of those immense tempests that we call here "hurricane". Not a few had we seen since 1492, but none so great, so terrible as thisone. Eight ships rode in the harbor and six were sunk. Aguado's fourcaravels and two others. Many seamen drowned; some got ashore half-dead. "How will I get away? I must to Spain!" cried Aguado. The Admiral said, "There is the _Nina_. " The _Nina_ must be made seaworthy, and in the end we built a smallership still which we called the _Santa Cruz_. Aguado waited, fretting. Christopherus Columbus kept toward him a great, calm courtesy. It was at this moment that Don Bartholomew found, through Miguel Diaz, the mines of Hayna, that was a great river in a very rich country. TheAdelantado brought to Isabella ore in baskets. Pablo Belvis, our newessayer, pronounced it true and most rich. Brought in smaller measureswere golden grains, knobs as large as filberts, golden collars and armrings from the Indians of Bonao where flowed the Hayna. "Ophir!" said the Admiral. "Mayhap it is Ophir! Then have we passedsomewhere the Gulf of Persia and Trapoban!" With that gold he sailed, he and Aguado and two small crowded ships. With him he carried Caonabo. It was early March in 1496. But Juan Lepe stayed in Hispaniola, greatly commended by the Admiral tothe Adelantado. A man might attach himself to the younger as well asthe elder of these brothers. Don Bartholomew had great qualities. Buthe hardly dreamed as did Christopherus Columbus. I loved the latter mostfor that--for his dreams. Days and days and days! We sought for gold in the Hayna country andfound a fair amount. And all Hayti now, each Indian cacique and hiscountry, must gather for us. _Must_, not may. We built the fortress ofSan Cristoval, and at last, to be nearer the gold than was Isabella, theAdelantado founded the city of San Domingo, at the mouth of the Ozema, in the Xaragua country. Spaniards in Hispaniola now lived, so many inIsabella, so many in San Domingo, and garrisons in the forts of St. Thomas, Concepcion, and San Cristoval. Weeks--months. July, and Pedro Alonzo Nino with three caravels filledwith strong new men and with provisions. How always we welcomed theseincoming ships and the throng they brought that stood and listened andthought at first, after the sea tossing and crowding, that they werecome to heaven! And Pedro Nino had left Cadiz in June, three days afterthe arrival there of the _Nina_ and the _Santa Cruz_. "June! They hadthen a long voyage!"--"Long enough! They looked like skeletons! If theAdmiral's hair could get whiter, it was whiter. " He had letters for the Adelantado from the great brother, having waitedin Cadiz while they were written. Juan Lepe had likewise a letter. "I was in the _Nina_, Don Juan deAguado in the Santa Cruz. We met at once head winds that continued. Atfirst I made east, but at last of necessity somewhat to the southward. We saw Marigalante again and Guadaloupe, and making for this last, anchored and went ashore, for the great relief of all, and for waterand provision. Here we met Amazons, wearing plumes and handling mightilytheir bows and arrows. After them came a host of men. Our cannon andarquebuses put them to flight but three of our sailors were wounded. Certain prisoners we took and bound upon the ships. In the village thatwe entered we found honey and wax. They are Cannibals; they eat men. After four days we set sail, but met again tempest and head winds, checking us so that for weeks we but crept and crawled over ocean. Atlast we must give small doles of bread and water. There grew famine, sickness and misery. I and all may endure these when great things areabout. But they blame me. O God, who wills that the Unknown become theKnown, I betake myself to Thy court! Famine increased. There are those, but I will not name them, who cried that we must kill the Indians withus and eat them that we might live. I stood and said, 'Let the Cannibalsstand with the Cannibals!' But no man budged. --I will not weary thee, best doctor, with our woes! At last St. Vincent rose out of sea, andwe presently came to Cadiz. Many died upon the voyage, and among themCaonabo. In the harbor here we find Pedro Alonzo Nino who will bear myletters. "In Cadiz I discover both friends and not friends. The sovereigns are atBurgos, and thither I travel. My fortunes are at ebb, yet will the floodcome again!" Time passed. Hispaniola heard again from him and again. When shipsput forth from Cadiz--and now ships passed with sufficient regularitybetween Spain in Europe and Spanish Land across Ocean-Sea--he wrote bythem. He believed in the letter. God only knows how many he wrote in hislifetime! It was ease to him to tell out, to dream visibly, to argue hiscase on fair paper. And those who came in the ships had stories abouthim-El Almirante! Were his fortunes at ebb, or were they still in flood? There mightbe more views here than one. Some put in that he was done for, othersclamored that he was yet mounting. But he wrote to the Adelantado and also to Juan Lepe that he sat betweengood and bad at court. The Queen was ever the great head of the good. We knew from him that Pedro Margarite and Father Buil and Juan Aguadoaltered nothing there. But elsewhere now there were warm winds, and nowbiting cold. And warm and cold, he could not get the winds that shouldfill his sails. He begged for ships--eight he named--that he might nowfind for the sovereigns main Asia--not touch here and there upon Cubashore, but find the Deep All. But forever promised, he was forever keptfrom the ships! True it was that the sovereigns and the world besidewere busy folk! There were Royal Marriages and Naples to be reconqueredfor its king. We heard of confirmations of all his dignities and his tithes of wealth. He was offered to be made Marquess, but that he would not have. "TheAdmiral" was better title. But he sued for and obtained entail upon hissons and their sons forever of his nobility and his great Estate in theWest. "Thus, " he wrote, "have I made your fortunes, sons and brothers!But truly not without you and your love and strengthening could I havemade aught! A brother indeed for my left hand and my right hand, and tobeckon me on, two dear sons!" CHAPTER XXXIV TWO years! It was March, 1496, when he sailed in the _Nina_. It was thesummer of 1498 when Juan Lepe was sent as physician with two shipsput forth from San Domingo by the Adelantado upon a rumor that thePortuguese had trespassed, landing from a great carrack upon Guadaloupe. Five days from Hispaniola we met a hurricane that carried us out of allreckoning. When stillness came again we were far south. No islands werein sight; there was only the sea vast and blue. There seemed to breathefrom it a strangeness. We were away and away, said our pilots, from thecurve, like a bent bow, of the Indian islands. A day and a night we hungin a dead calm. Dawn broke. "Sail, ho! Sail, ho!" We thought that it might be the Portuguese and made preparation. Threeships lifted over the blue rim. There was now a light wind; it broughtthem nearer, they being better sailers than the _Santa Cruz_ and the_Santa Clara_. We saw the banner. "Castile!" and a lesser one. "ElAlmirante!" Now we were close together. The masters hailed, "What ships?"--"FromHispaniola!"--"From Cadiz. The Admiral with us! Come aboard, yourcommander!" That was Luis Mendez, and in the boat with him went Juan Lepe. The shipswere the _Esperanza_, the _San Sebastian_ and the _San Martin_, thefirst fairly large and well decked, the others small. They who lookedoverside and shouted welcome seemed a medley of gentle and simple, mariners, husbandmen, fighting men and hidalgos. The Admiral! His hair was milk-white, his tall, broad frame gaunt asa January wolf. Two years had written in his face two years'experience--fully written, for he was sensitive to every wind ofexperience. "Excellency!"--"Juan Lepe, I am as glad of you as of abrother!--And what do you do, senors, here?" Luis Mendez related. "I think it false news about the Portuguese, " saidthe Admiral and gave reasons why. "Then shall we keep with you, sir?" "No, since you are sent out by my brother and must give him account. Have you water to spare? We will take that from you. I am bound stillsouth. I will find out what is there!" Further talk disclosed that he had left Spain with six ships, but atthe Canaries had parted his fleet in two, sending three under Alonzo deCaravajal upon the straight course to Hispaniola, and himself with threesailing first to the Green Cape islands, and thence southwest into anunknown sea. So desolate, wide and blue it looked when the next day we parted, --twoships northward, three southward! But Juan Lepe stayed with the_Esperanza_ and the Admiral. As long since, between the _Santa Maria_and the _Pinta_, there had been exchange of physicians, so now again wasexchange between the _Santa Cruz_ and the _Esperanza_. Days of blue sea. The _Esperanza_ carried a somewhat frank and friendlycrew of mariners and adventurers. Now he would sail south, he said, until he was under the Equator. Days of stark blue ocean. Then out of the sea to the south rose a pointof land, becoming presently three points, as it were three peaks. TheAdmiral stared. I saw the enthusiasm rise in his face. "Did I not writeand say to the Sovereigns and to Rome that in the Name of the HolyTrinity, I would now again seek out and find? There! Look you! It is asign! Trinidad--we will name it Trinidad. " The next morning we came to Trinidad, and the palms trooped to the wateredge, and we saw sparkling streams, and from the heights above the seacurls of smoke from hidden huts. We coasted, seeking anchorage, andat last came into a clear, small harbor, and landing, filled our watercasks. We knew the country was inhabited for we saw the smokes, but nocanoes came about us, and though we met with footprints upon the sandthe men who made them never returned. We weighed anchor and sailed onalong the southern coast, and now to the south of us, across not manyleagues of blue water, we made out a low shore. Its ends were lost inhaze, but we esteemed it an island, and he named it Holy Island. It wasnot island, as now we know; but we did not know it then. How dreamlikeis all our finding, and how halfway only to great truths! Cuba wethought was the continent, and the shore that was continent, we called"island. " Now we came to a long southward running tongue of Trinidad. PointArenal, he named it. A corresponding tongue of that low Holy Islandreached out toward it, and between the two flowed an azure strait. Here, off Point Arenal, the three ships rested at anchor, and now there cameto us from Holy Island a big canoe, filled with Indians. As they camenear the _Esperanza_ we saw that they were somewhat lighter in hue thanthose Indians to whom we were used. Moreover they wore bright-coloredloin cloths, and twists of white or colored cotton about their heads, like slight turbans, and they carried not only bows and arrows to whichwe were used, but round bucklers to which we were not used. They lookedat us in amazement, but they were ready for war. We invited them with every gesture of amity, holding out glass beads andhawk bells, but they would not come close to us. As they hung upon theblue water out of the shadow of the ship, the Admiral would have ourmusicians begin loudly to play. But when the drums began, the fife andthe castanets, the canoe started, quivered, the paddlers dipped, itraced back to that shore whence it came, that shore that we thoughtisland. "Lighter than Haytiens!" exclaimed the Admiral. "I have thought that aswe neared the Equator we should find them black!" Afterwards he expanded upon this. "Jayme Ferrer thinks as I think, thatthe nearer we come to the Equator the more precious grow all things, themore gold, the more diamonds, rubies and emeralds, the more prodigal anddelicious the spices! The people are burnt black, but they grow gentlerand more wise, and under the line they are makers of white magic. I havenot told you, Juan Lepe, but I hold that now we begin to come to whereour Mother Earth herself climbs, and climbs auspiciously!" "That we come to great mountains?" "No, not that, though there may be great mountains. But I have thoughtit out, and now I hold that the earth is not an orb, but is shaped, asit were, like a pear. It would take an hour to give you all the reasonsthat decide me! But I hold that from hereabouts it mounts fairer andfairer, until under the line, about where would be the stem of the pear, we come to the ancient Earthly Paradise, the old Garden of Eden!" I looked to the southward. Certainly there is nowhere where there is notsomething! He gazed over the truly azure and beauteous sea, and the air blew softand cool upon our foreheads, and the fragrance which came to us fromland seemed new. "Would you not look for the halcyons? Trinidad! HolyIsland! We approach, I hold, the Holy Mountain of the World. And harkto me, Juan Lepe, make vow that if it be permitted I will found therean abbey whence shall arise perpetual orison for the souls of our firstparents!" We found that night that the ships swung, caught in a current issuingfrom the strait before us. In the morning we made sail and prepared topass through this narrow way between the two lands, seeing open waterbeyond. We succeeded by great skill and with Providence over us, for wemet as it were an under wall of water ridged atop with strong waves. Theships were tossed as by a tempest, yet was the air serene, the sky blue. We came hardly through and afterwards called that strait Mouth of theSerpent. Now we were in a great bay or gulf, and still the sea shook usand drove us. Calm above, around, but underneath an agitation of waters, strong currents and boilings. Among our mariners many took fright. "Whatis it? Are there witches? We are in a cauldron!" Christopherus Columbus himself took the helm of the _Esperanza_. Many aman in these times chose to doubt what kind of Viceroy he made, but noman who ever sailed with him but at last said, "Child of Neptune, andthe greatest seaman we have!" We outrode danger and came under land to a quiet anchorage, the _SanSebastian_ and the _San Martin_ following us as the chickens the hen. Still before us we saw that current ridge the sea. The Admiral stoodgazing upon the southward shore that hung in a dazzling haze. Now wethought water, now we thought land. He called to a ship boy and thelad presently brought him a pannikin of water dipped from the sea. TheAdmiral tasted. "Fresh! It is almost fresh!" He stood with a kindling face. "A river runs into sea from this land!Surely the mightiest that may be, rushing forth like a dragon andfighting all the salt water! So great a river could not come from anisland, no, not if it were twice as large as Hispaniola! Such a rivercomes downward with force hundreds of leagues and gathers children toitself as it comes. It is not an island yonder; it is a great main!" We called the gulf where we were the Gulf of the Whale. Trinidad stoodon the one hand, the unknown continent on the other. After rest inmilky water, we set sail to cross the width of the Whale, and foundglass-green and shaken water, but never so piled and dangerous as at theMouth of the Serpent. So we came to that land that must be--we knew notwhat! It hung low, in gold sunlight. We saw no mountains, but it wascovered with the mightiest forest. Anchoring in smooth water, we took out boats and went ashore, and weraised a cross. "As in Adam we all die, so in Christ we be alive!" saidthe Admiral, and then, "What grandeur is in this forest!" In truth we found trees that we had not found in our islands, and of anunbelievable height and girth. Upon the boughs sat parrots, and we wereused to them, but we were not used to monkeys which now appeared, toour mariners' delight. We met footprints of some great animal, andpresently, being beside a stream, we made out upon a mud bank thosecrocodiles that the Indians call "cayman. " And never have I seen somany and such splendid butterflies. All this forest seemed to us of avastness, as the rivers were vast. There rang in our ears "New! New!" And at last came an Indian canoe--two--three, filled with light-hued, hardly more than tawny, folk, with cloth of cotton about their middlesand twisted around their heads, with bows and arrows and those newbucklers. But seeing that we did not wish to fight, they did not wish tofight either; and there was all the old amaze. Gods--gods--gods! We sought the Earthly Paradise, and they thought wecame therefrom. Paria. We made out that they called their country Paria. They had in their canoes a bread like cassava, but more delicate, wethought, and in calabashes almost a true wine. We gave them toys, and asthey always pointed westward and seemed to signify that there was _the_land, we returned after two hours to the ships and set ourselves tofollow the coast. Two or three of this people would go with the gods. We came to that river mouth that troubled all this sea. What shall I saybut that it was itself a sea, a green sea, a fresh sea? We crossed itwith long labor. The men of Paria made us understand that their seasonof rain was lately over, and that ever after that was more river. Whence did it come? They spoke at length and, Christopherus Columbus wascertain, of some heavenly country. The dawn came up sweet and red. The country before us had hills and wemade out clearings in the monster forest, and now the blue water wasthronged with canoes. We anchored; they shot out to us fearlessly. TheJamaica canoe is larger and better than the Haytien, but those of thisland surpass the Jamaican. They are long and wide and have in the middlea light cabin. The rowers chant as they lift and dip their broad oars. If we were gods to them, yet they seemed gay and fearless of the gods. Ithought with the Admiral that they must have tradition or rumor, of folkhigher upon the mount of enlightenment than themselves. Perhaps nowand again there was contact. At any rate, we did not meet here thestupefaction and the prostrations of our first islands. We had again nocommon tongue, but they proved masters of gesture. Gold was upon them, and that in some amount, and what was extraordinary, often enough inwell-wrought shapes of ornament. A seaman brought to the Admiral agolden frog, well-made, pierced for a red cotton string, worn so abouta copper-colored neck. He had traded for it three hawk bells. TheAdmiral's face glowed. "It has been wrought by those who know how towork in metals! Tubal-cain!" Moreover, now we found pearls. There came to us singing a great canoeand in it a plumed cacique with his wife and daughters. All wore twistsof pearls around throat and arms. They gave them freely for red, blue and green beads, which to them were indeed rubies, sapphires andemeralds. --Whence came the pearls? It seemed from the coast beyond andwithout this gulf. Whence the gold? It seemed from high mountains farbehind the country of Paria. It was dangerous in the extreme to gothere! "Because of the light which repels all darkness!" said theAdmiral. "When we go there, it must be gently and humbly like shrivenmen. " It was August. He knew that Don Bartholomew in Hispaniola cravedhis return. The three ships, too, were weatherworn, with seams thatthreatened gaping. And as for our adventurers and the husbandmen andcraftsmen, they were most weary of the sea. The mariners were used toit, the Admiral had lover's passion for it, but not they! Here beforeus, truly, loomed a promising great land, but it was not our port; ourport was San Domingo! There, there in Hispaniola, were old Castiliansin plenty to greet and show. There were the mines that were actuallyworking, gold to pick up, and Indians trained to bring it to you! There, for the enterprising and the lucky, were gifts of land, to each his_repartimentio_! There was companionship, there was fortune, there wasease! Others were getting, while we rode before a land we were too fewto occupy. They went in company to the Admiral. We had discovered. Nowlet us go onto Hispaniola! The ships--our health. When it came to health it was he who had most to endure. The gout possessed him often. His brow knotted with pain; his voice, by nature measured and deep, a rolling music, became sharp and dry. Hemoved with difficulty, now and then must stay in bed, or if on deck ina great chair which we lashed to the mast. But now a trouble seized hiseyes. They gave him great pain; at times he could barely see. Bathethem with a soothing medicine, rest them. But when had he rested them, straining over the ocean since he was a boy? He was a man greatlypatient under adversity, whether of the body or of the body'scircumstance, but this trouble with the eyes shook him. "If I becomeblind--and all that's yet to do and find! Blessed Mother of God, let notthat happen to me!" I thought that he should go to Hispaniola, where in the Adelantado'shouse in San Domingo he might submit to bandaging, light and sea shutout. At last, "Well, well, we will turn! But first we must leave this gulfand try it out for some distance westward!" We left this water by a way as narrow as the entering strait, as narrowand presenting the like rough confusion of waters, wall against wall. We called it the Mouth of the Dragon. Mouth of the Dragon, Mouth of theSerpent, and between them the Gulf of the Whale or of Paria. Now wasopen sea, and south of us ran still that coast that he would have mountto the Equator and to that old, first Garden Land where all things yetwere fair and precious! "I can not stay now, but I will come again!I will find the mighty last things!" His eyes gave him great pain. Hecovered them, then dropped his hands and looked, then must again cover. A strange thing! We were borne westward ever upon a vast current of thesea, taking us day and night, so that though the winds were light wewent as though every sail was wholly filled. Christopherus Columbus talked of these rivers in ocean. "A day will comewhen they will be correctly marked. Aye, in the maps of our descendants!Then ships will say, 'Now here is the river so and so, ' as to-day thehorseman says, 'Here is the Tagus, or the Guadalquiver!'" Another thing he said was that to his mind all the islands that we hadfound in six years, from San Salvador to Cubagua, had once been joinedtogether. Land from this shore to Cuba and beyond. So the peoples werescattered. He talked to us much upon this voyage of the great earth and the shapeof it, and its destinies; of the stars, the needle, the Great Circleand the lesser ones, and the Ocean. He had our time's learning, gainedthrough God knows how many nights of book by candle! And he had a mindthat took eagle flights with spread of eagle wings, and in many ways hehad the eagle's eye. It was not Cipango and Cathay that now he talked of, but of this greatland-mass before us which he would have rise to Equator and all Wonder. And he talked also of some water passage, some strait lying to thewestward, by which we might sail between lands and islands to thefurther Indian Ocean, and so across to the Sea of Araby, and then aroundAfrica by Good Hope and then northward, northward, to Spain, coming intoCadiz with banners, having sailed around the world! He talked, and all the time his pain ate him, and he must cover eyes tokeep the sword-light out. In middle August we turned northward from our New Land, and a fortnightlater we came to San Domingo, that Christopherus Columbus had neverseen, though to us in Hispaniola it was an old town, having been buildedabove two years. The Viceroy and the Adelantado clasped hands, embraced; tears ran downtheir bronzed cheeks. Not later than a day after our anchoring, the ships being unladed, allSan Domingo coming and going, trumpets blew and gathered all to our openplace before the Viceroy's house. Proclamation--Viceregal Proclamation!First, thanks to God for safe return, and second, hearty approval of theAdelantado, all his Acts and Measures. There were two parties in San Domingo, and one now echoed in a shoutapproval of the Adelantado, and the other made here a dead silence, andhere a counter-murmur. I heard a man say, "Fool praises fool! Villainbrother upholding villain brother!" Now I do not think the Adelantado's every act was wise, nor theViceroy's either, for that matter. But they were far, far, thosebrothers, from fool and villain! The Proclamation arrived at long thunders against Francisco Roldan hissedition. Here again the place divided as before. Roldan, I had it fromLuis Torres, was in Xaragua, safe and arrogant, harking on Indian war, undermining everywhere. Our line of forts held for the Adelantado, butthe two or three hundred Spaniards left in Isabella were openly Roldan'smen. The Viceroy, through the voice of Miguel the Herald, recited, denounced and warned, then left Francisco Roldan and with suddennessmade statement that within a few days five ships would sail for Spain, and that all Spaniards whomsoever, who for reasons whatsoever desiredHome, had his consent to go! Consent, Free Passage, and No Questioning! Whereat the place buzzed loudly, and one saw that many would go. Many did go upon the ships that sailed not in a few days but a fewweeks. Some went for good reasons, but many for ill. Juan Lepe heardafar and ahead of time the great tide of talk when they should arrive inSpain! And though many went who wished the Admiral ill, many stayed, andforever Roldan made for him more enemies, open or secret. He sent, it is true, upon those ships friends to plead his cause. Don Francisco de Las Casas went to Spain and others went. And he sentletters. Juan Lepe, much in his house, tending him who needed thephysician Long-Rest and Ease-of-Mind, heard these letters read. Therewas one to the Sovereigns in which he related with simple eloquence thatdiscovery to the South, and his assurance that he had touched thefoot of the Mount of all the World. With this letter he sent a hundredpearls, the golden frog and other gold. Again he took paper and wrote ofthe attitude of all things in Hispaniola, of Roldan and evil men, of theAdelantado's vigilance, justice and mercy, of natural difficulties andthe need to wait on time, of the Indians. He begged that there besent him ample supplies and good men, and withal friars for the Indiansalvation, and some learned, wise and able lawyer and judge, much neededto give the law upon a thousand complaints brought by childish andfactious men. And if the Sovereigns saw fit to send out some just andlofty mind to take evidence from all as to their servant ChristopherusColumbus's deeds and public acts and care of their Majesties' NewLands and all the souls therein, such an one would be welcomed by theirGraces' true servant. So he himself asked for a commissioner--but he never thought of such anone as Francisco de Bobadilla! So the ships sailed. Time passed. CHAPTER XXXV UP and down went the great Roldan scission. Up and down went Indianrevolt, repression, fresh revolt, fresh repression. On flowed time. Ships came in, one bearing Don Diego; ships went out. Time passed. Alonso de Ojeda, who by now was no more than half his friend, returnedto Spain and there proposed to the Sovereigns a voyage of his own tothat Southern Continent that never had the Admiral chance to return to!The Sovereigns now were giving such consent to this one and to that one, breaking their pact with Christopherus Columbus. In our world it was nowimpossible that that pact should be letter-kept, but the Genoese didnot see it so. Ojeda sailed from Cadiz for Paria with four ships and aconcourse of adventurers. With him went the pilot Juan de la Cosa, and ageographer of Florence, Messer Amerigo Vespucci. It came to us in Hispaniola that Ojeda was gone. Now I saw the Admiral'sheart begin to break. Yet Ojeda in his voyage did not find the EarthlyParadise, only went along that coast as we had done, gathered pearls, and returned. Time passed. Other wild and restless adventurers beside Roldan brokeinto insurrections less than Roldan's. The Viceroy hanged Moxica andseven with him, and threw into prison Guevara and Requelme. Roldan, having had his long fling--too powerful still to hang or to chain insome one of our forts--Roldan wrote and received permission, and came toSan Domingo, and was reconciled. Suddenly, after long time of turmoil, wild adventure and uncertainty, peace descended. Over all Hispaniola the Indians submitted. Henceforththey were our subjects; let us say our victims and our slaves! Quarrelsbetween Castilians died over night. Miraculously the sky cleared. Miraculously, or perhaps because of long, patient steering throughstorm. For three months we lived with an appearance of blossoming andprospering. It seemed that it might become a peaceful, even a happyisland. The Viceroy grew younger, the Adelantado grew younger, and Don Diego, and with them those who held by them through thick and thin. The Admiralbegan to talk Discovery. It was two years since there, far to the south, we had passed in by the Mouth of the Serpent, and out by the Mouth ofthe Dragon. The Viceroy, inspecting the now quiet Vega, rode to an Indian village, near Concepcion. He had twenty behind him, well-armed, but arms were notneeded. The people came about him with an eagerness, a docility. Theytold their stories. He sat his horse and listened with a benignant face. Certain harshnesses in times and amounts of their tribute he redressed. Forever, when personal appeal came to him, he proved magnanimous, oftentender, fatherly and brotherly. At a distance he could be severe. Butwhen I think of the cruelties and high-handedness of others here, theAdelantado and the Viceroy shine mildly. We rode back to Concepcion. I remember the jewel-like air that day, theflowers, the trees, the sky. Palms rustled above us, the brilliantsmall lizards darted around silver trunks. "The fairest day!" quoth theAdmiral. "Ease at heart! I feel ease at heart. " This night, as I sat beside him, wiling him to sleep, for he always hadtrouble sleeping--a most wakeful man!--he talked to me about the Queen. Toward this great woman he ever showed veneration, piety, and knightlyregard. Of all in Spain she it was who best understood and sharedthat religious part in him that breathed upward, inspired, longed andstrained toward worlds truly not on the earthly map. She, like him--orso took leave to think Juan Lepe--received at times too docilely word ofauthority, or that which they reckoned to be authority. Princes of theChurch could bring her to go against her purer thought. The world asit is, dinging ever, "So important is wealth--so important isherald-nobility--so important is father-care in these respects forsons!" could make him take a tortuous and complicated way, could makehim bow and cap, could make him rule with an ear for world's advicewhen he should have had only his book and his ship and his dream anda cheering cry "Onward!" Or so thinks Juan Lepe. But Juan Lepe and allwait on full light. He talked of her great nature, and her goodness to him. Of how sheunderstood when the King would not. Of how she would never listen to hisenemies, or at the worst not listen long. He turned upon his bed in the warm Indian night. I asked him if I shouldread to him but he said, not yet. He had talked since the days of hisfirst seeking with many a great lord, aye, and great lady. But theQueen was the one of them all who understood best how to trust a man!Differences in mind arose within us all, and few could find the firmsoul behind all that! She could, and she was great because she could. He loved to talk with her. Her face lighted when he came in. When otherswere by she said "Don Cristoval", or "El Almirante", but with himselfalone she still said "Master Christopherus" as in the old days. At last he said, "Now, let us read. " Each time he came from Spain toHispaniola he brought books. And when ships came in there would be apacket for him. I read to him now from an old poet, printed in Venice. He listened, then at last he slept. I put out the candle, stepped softlyforth past Gonsalvo his servant, lying without door. An hour after dawn a small cavalcade appeared before the fort. At firstwe thought it was the Adelantado from Xaragua. But no! it was Alonzode Carvajal with news and a letter from San Domingo, and in the verystatement ran a thrilling something that said, "Hark, now! I am Fortunethat turns the wheel. " Carvajal said, "senor, I have news and a letter for your ear and eyealone!" "From my brother at San Domingo?" "Aye, and from another, " said Carvajal. "Two ships have come in. " With that the Admiral and he went into Commandant's house. The men at Concepcion made Carvajal's men welcome. "And what is it?""And what is it?" They had their orders evidently, but much wine leakedout of the cask. If one wished the Viceroy and his brothers ill, it wasfound to be heady wine; if the other way round, it seemed thin, chillyand bitter. Here at Concepcion were Admiral's friends. After an hour he came again among us, behind him Carvajal. Now, this man, Christopherus Columbus, always appeared most highly andnobly Man, most everlasting and universal, in great personal trouble anddanger. It was, I hold, because nothing was to him smally personal, butalways pertained to great masses, to worlds and to ages. Now, looking athim, I knew that trouble and danger had arrived. He said very little. IfI remember, it was, "My friends, the Sovereigns whom we trust and obey, have sent a Commissioner, Don Francisco de Bobadilla, whom we must gomeet. We ride from Concepcion at once to Bonao. " We rode, his company and Carvajal's company. Don Francisco de Bobadilla! Jayme de Marchena had some association here. It disentangled itself, came at last clear. A Commander of the Order ofCalatrava--about the King in some capacity--able and honest, men said. Able and honest, Jayme de Marchena had heard said, but also a passionateman, and a vindictive, and with vanity enough for a legion of peacocks. We came to Bonao and rested here. I had a word that night from theAdmiral. "Doctor, Doctor, a man must outlook storm! He grew man bythat. " I asked if I might know what was the matter. He answered, "I do not know myself. Don Diego says that great powershave been granted Don Francisco de Bobadilla. I have not seen thosepowers. But he has demanded in the name of the Sovereigns our prisoners, our ships and towns and forts, and has cited us to appear before him andanswer charges--of I know not what! I well think it is a voice withouttrue mind or power behind it--I go to San Domingo, but not just at hiscitation!" Later, in the moonlight, one of our men told me that which a man ofCarvajal had told him. All the Admiral's enemies, and none ever saidthey were few, had this fire-new commissioner's ear! A friend could notget within hail. Just or unjust, every complaint came and squatted in aring around him. Maybe some were just--such as soldiers not beingable to get their pay, for instance. There was never but one who livedwithout spot or blemish. But of course we knew that the old Admiralwasn't really a tyrant, cruel and a fool! Of course not. Carvajal's manwas prepared to fight any man of his own class who would say that to hisface! He'd fight, too, for the Adelantado. Don Francisco de Bobadillahad no sooner landed than he began to talk and act as though they wereall villains. Don Diego--whom it was laughable to call a villain--andall. He went to mass at once--Don Francisco de Bobadilla--and when itwas over and all were out and all San Domingo there in the square, hehad his letters loudly read. True enough! He is Governor, and everybodyelse must obey him! _Even the Admiral!_ At dawn Juan Lepe walked and thought. And then he saw coming theFranciscan, Juan de Trasiena and Francisco Velasquez the Treasurer. Thatwhich Juan de Trasiena and Francisco Velasquez brought were attestedcopies of the royal letters. I saw them. "Wherefore we have named Don Francisco de Bobadilla Governorof these islands and of the main land, and we command you, cavaliersand all persons whatever, to give him that obedience which you do owe tous. " And to him, the new Governor: "Whomsoever you find guilty, arresttheir persons and take over their goods. " And, "If you find it to ourservice that any cavaliers or other persons who are at present inthese islands should leave them, and that they should come and presentthemselves before us, you may command it in our names and oblige it. "And, "Whomsoever you thus command, we hereby order that immediately theyobey as though it were ourselves. " "And if thus and thus is found to bethe case, the said Admiral of the Ocean-Sea shall give into your hands, ships, fortresses, arms, houses and treasure, and he shall himself beobedient to your command. " The Admiral said, "If it be found thus and thus! But how shall he findit, seeing that it is not so?" We rode to San Domingo, but not many rode. He would not have many. "Noshow of force, no gaud of office!" He rode unarmored, on his gray horse. The banner that was always bornewith him--"Yea, carry it still, until he demands it!" We were a bare dozen, but when we entered San Domingo one might thinkthat Don Francisco de Bobadilla feared an army, for he had all hissoldiers drawn up to greet us! The rest of the population were incoigns, gazing. We saw friends--Juan Ponce de Leon and others--but theywere helpless. For all the people in it, the place seemed to me deadquiet, hot, sunny, dead quiet. The Admiral rode to the square. Here was his house, and the royal bannerover it. He dismounted and spoke to men before the door. "Tell DonFrancisco de Bobadilla that Don Cristoval Colon is here. " There came an officer with a sword, behind him a dozen men. "Senor, inthe name of the Sovereigns, I arrest you!" Christopherus Columbus gazed upon him. "For what, senor?" The other, an arrogant, ill-tempered man, answered loudly so that allaround could hear, "For ill-service to our lord the King and Queen, andto their subjects here in the Indies, and to God!" "God knows, you hurt the truth!" said the Admiral. "Where is my brother, Don Diego?" "Laid by the heels in the Santa Catarina, " answered the graceless man;then to one of the soldiers, "Take the banner from behind him and restit against the wall. " The Admiral said, "I would see Don Francisco de Bobadilla. " "That is as he desires and when he desires, " the other replied. "Closearound him, men!" The fortress of San Domingo is a gloomy place. They prisoned himhere, and they put irons upon him. I saw that done. One or two of hisimmediate following, and I his physician might enter with him. He stood in the dismal place where one ray of light came down froma high, small, grated window, and he looked at the chains which theybrought. He asked, "Who will put them on?" He looked at the chains and at the soldier who brought them. "Put themon, man!" he said. "What! Once thou didst nail God's foot to a cross! Asfor me, I will remember that One who saved all, and be patient. " They chained him and left him there in the dark. I saw him the next day, entering with his gaoler. Had he slept? "Yes. " "How did he find himself?" "How does my body find itself? Why, no worse than usual, nowadays that Iam getting old! My body has been unhappier a thousand times in storm andfight, and thirst and famine. " "Then mind and soul?" I asked. "They are well. There is nothing left for them but to feel well. I am inthe hand of God. " I did what service for him I could. He thanked me. "You've been everas tender as a woman. A brave man besides! I hope you'll be by me, JuanLepe, when I die. " "When you die, senor, there will die a great servant of the world. " I spoke so because I knew the cordial that he wanted. His eyes brightened, strength came into his voice. "Do you know aught ofmy brother the Adelantado?" "No. He may be on his way from Xaragua. What would you wish him to do, sir?" "Come quietly to San Domingo as I came. This Governor is but a violent, petty shape! But I have sworn to obey the Queen and the King of theSpains. I and mine to obey. " I asked him if he believed that the Sovereigns knew this outrage. Icould believe it hardly of King Ferdinand, not at all of the Queen. Again I felt that this was cordial to him. I had spoken out of myconviction, and he knew it. "No, " he said. "I do not believe it. I willnever believe it of the Queen! Look you! I have thought it out in thenight. The night is good for thinking out. You would not believe howmany enemies I have in Spain. Margarite and Father Buil are but two ofa crowd. Fonseca, who should give me all aid, gives me all hindrance. Ihave throngs of foes; men who envy me; men who thought I might give themthe golden sun, and I could not; hidalgos who hold that God made them toenjoy, standing on other men's shoulders, eating the grapes and throwingdown the empty skins, and I made them to labor like the others; and notin Heaven or Hell will they forgive me! And others--and others. Theyhave turned the King a little their way. I knew that, ere I went to findthat great new land where are pearls, that slopes upward by littles tothe Height of the World and the Earthly Paradise. Turned the King, butnot the Queen. But now I make it they have worked upon her. I make itthat she does not know the character of Don Francisco de Bobadilla. Imake it that, holding him to be far wiser than he is, she with theKing gave him great power as commissioner. I make it that they gave himletters of authority, and a last letter, superseding the Viceroy, naminghim Governor whom all must obey. I make it that he was only to use thisif after long examination it was found by a wise, just man that I haddone after my enemies' hopes. I make it that here across Ocean-Sea, far, far from Spain, he chose not to wait. He clucked to him all thedisaffected and flew with a strong beak at the eyes of my friends. " Hemoved his arms and his chains clanked. "I make it that this severity isDon Francisco de Bobadilla's, not King Ferdinand's, not--oh, more thannot--the good Queen's!" Juan Lepe thought that he had made out the probabilities, probably thecertainties. "If I may win to Spain!" he ended. "It all hinges on that! If I may seethe Sovereigns--if I may see the good Queen! I hope to God he will soonchain me in a ship and send me!" Had he seen Don Francisco de Bobadilla? No, he had not seen Don Francisco de Bobadilla. He thought that on thewhole that Hidalgo and Commander of Calatrava was afraid. Outside of the fortress that afternoon Juan Lepe kept company with onewho had come with the fire-new Governor, a grim, quiet fellow namedPedro Lopez. He and Luis Torres had been neighbors in Spain; it wasLuis who brought us together. I gave him some wine in Doctor Juan Lepe'ssmall room and he told readily the charges against the Viceroy thatBobadilla, seizing, made into a sheaf. Already I knew what they were. I had heard them. One or two had, Ithought, faint justification, but the mass, no! Personal avarice, personal greed, paynim luxury, arrogance, cruelty, deceit--it made onesorrowfully laugh who knew the man! Here again clamored the old chargeof upstartness. A low-born Italian, son of a wool-comber, vindictivetoward the hidalgo, of Spain! But there were new charges. Three mendeposed that he neglected Indian salvation. And I heard for the firsttime that so soon as he found the Grand Khan he meant to give over tothat Oriental all the islands and the main, and so betray the Sovereignsand Christ and every Spaniard in these parts! The Adelantado arrived in San Domingo. He came with only a score or twoof men, who could have raised many more. Don Francisco de Bobadillasaw to it that he had word from his great brother, and that word was"Obedience. " The Adelantado gave his sword to Don Francisco. The latterloaded the first with chains and put him aboard a caravel in the harbor. He asked to be prisoned with his brother; but why ask any magnanimityfrom an unmagnanimous soul? Out in the open now were all the old insurgents. Guevara and Requelmebowed to the earth when the Governor passed, and Roldan sat with him atwine. CHAPTER XXXVI THE caravel tossed in a heavy storm. Some of her mariners were oldin these waters, but others, coming out with Bobadilla, had littleknowledge of our breadths of Ocean-Sea. They had met naught like thisrain, this shaken air, these thunders and lightnings. There rose a crythat the ship would split. All was because they had chained the Admiral! Don Alonso de Villejo, the Captain taking Christopherus Columbus toSpain, called to him Juan Lepe. "Witness you, Doctor, I would have takenaway the irons so soon as we were out of harbor! I would have done it onmy own responsibility. But he would not have it!" "Yes, I witness. In chains in Hispaniola, he will come to Spain inchains. " "If the ship goes down every man must save himself. He must be free. Ihave sent for the smith. Come you with me!" We went to that dusky cabin in the ship where he was prisoned. "It isa great storm, and we are in danger, senor!" said Villejo. "I will takeaway these irons so that if--" The Admiral's silver hair gleamed in the dusk. He moved and his gyvesstruck together. "Villejo!" he said, "if I lie to-night on the floor ofOcean-Sea, I will lie there in these chains! When the sea gives up itsdead, I will rise in them!" "I could force you, senor, " said Villejo. The other answered, "Try it, and God will make your hands like ababe's!" Villejo and the smith did not try it. There was something around himlike an invisible guard. I knew the feel of it, and that it was his willemerged at height. "Remember then, senor, that I would have done it for you!" Villejotouched the door. The Admiral's voice came after. "My brother, DonBartholomew, he who was responsible to me and only through me to theSovereigns, free him, Villejo, and you have all my thanks!" We went to take the gyves from Don Bartholomew. It would have beencomfort to these brothers to be together in prison--but that theGovernor of Hispaniola straitly forbade. When Villejo had explained whathe would do, the Adelantado asked, "What of the Admiral?" "I wish to take them from him also. But he is obstinate in his pride andwill not!" "He will go as he is to the Queen and Spain and the world, " said JuanLepe. "That is enough for me, " answered the Adelantado. "I do not go downto-night a freed body while he goes down a chained. --Farewell, senor! Ithink I hear your sailors calling. " Villejo hesitated. "Let them have their will, senor, " said Juan Lepe. "Their will is as good as ours. " Don Bartholomew turned to me. "How fares my brother, Doctor? Is he ill?" "He is better. Because he was ill I was let to come with him. But now heis better. " "Give him my enduring love and constancy, " said the Adelantado. "Goodnight, Villejo!" and turned upon his side with a rattling of his chain. Returning to the Admiral, Juan Lepe sat beside him through the night. The tempest continuing, there were moments when we thought, It may bethe end of this life! We thought to hear the cry "She sinks!" and therush of feet. At times when there fell lulls we talked. He was calmly cheerful. "It seems to me that the storm lessens. I have been penning in my mind, lying here, a letter to one who will show it to the Queen. Writing so, Ican say with greater freedom that which should be said. " "What do you say?" He told me with energy. His letter related past events in Hispaniola andthe arrival of Bobadilla and all that took place thereupon. He had aneloquence of the pen as of speech, and what he said to Dona Juana de laTorre moved. A high simplicity was his in such moment, an opening ofthe heart, such as only children and the very great attain. He told hiswrongs, and he prayed for just judgment, "not as a ruler of an orderedland where obtain old, known, long-followed laws, and where indeeddisorder might cry 'Weakness and Ill-doing!' But I should be judgedrather as a general sent to bring under government an enemy people, numerous, heathen, living in a most difficult, unknown and pathlesscountry. And to do this I had many good men, it is true, but also a hostthat was not good, but was factious, turbulent, sensual and idle. Yet have I brought these strange lands and naked peoples under theSovereigns, giving them the lordship of a new world. What say myaccusers? They say that I have taken great honors and wealth andnobility for myself and my house. Even they say, O my friend! that fromthe vast old-and-new and fairest land that I have lately found, I tookand kept the pearls that those natives brought me, not rendering them tothe Sovereigns. God judge me, it is not so! Spain becometh vastly rich, and the head of the world, and her Sovereigns, lest they should scanttheir own nobility, give nobility, place and wage to him who broughtthem Lordship here. It is all! And out of my gain am I not pledged togather an army and set it forth to gain the Sepulchre? Have I fallen, now and again, in all these years in my Government, into some error?How should I not do so, being human? But never hath an error been meant, never have I wished but to deal honestly and mercifully with all, withSpaniards and with Indians, to serve well the Sovereigns and to advancethe Cross. I call the saints to witness! All the way has been difficult, thorns of nature's and my enemies' planting, but God knoweth, I havetrodden it steadily. I have given much to the Sovereigns, how much it isfuture days brighter than these will show! I have been true servant tothem. If now, writing in chains, upon the caravel _Santa, Marta_, I cryto them for justice, it is because I do not fear justice!" He ceased to speak, then presently, "I would that all might see thelight that I see over the future!--Thou seest it, Juan Lepe. " "Aye, I see light over the future. " By littles the storm fell. Ere dawn we could say, "We shall outlive it!"He slept for an hour then waked. "I was dreaming of the Holy Land--butdo you know, Juan Lepe, it was seated here in the lands we found!" "Seated here and everywhere, " I said. "As soon as we see it so and makeit so. " "Aye, I know that the sea is holy, and so should be all the land! Theprophet sees it so--" The dawn came faintly in upon us. All was quieter, the footing overheadsteady, not hasting, frightened. Light strengthened. A boy broughthim breakfast. He ate with appetite. "You are better, " I said, "andyounger. " "It is a strange thing, " he answered, "but so it had been from myboyhood. Is the danger close and drear, is the ship upon the reef, thensome one pours for me wine! Some one, do I say? I know Whom!" I began to speak of the Adelantado. "Aye, there he is the same!'Peril--darkness? Well, let's meet it!' We are alike, we three brothers, alike and different. Diego serves God best in a monastery, and I servebest in a ship with a book and a map to be followed and bettered. Bartholomew serves best where he has been, Adelantado and Alcayde. Heis powerful there, with judgment and action. But he is a sea master too, and he makes a good map. --I thank God who gave us good parents, and tous all three mind and a firm will! The inheritance passes to my sons. You have not seen them? They are youths of great promise! A family thatis able and at one, loving and aiding each the other, honoring its pastand providing for its future, becomes, I tell you, an Oak that cannot befelled--an Ark that rides the waters!" As he moved, his chains made again their dull noise. "Do they greatlygall you?" "Yes, they gall! Flesh and spirit. But I shall wear them until the Queensaith, 'Away with them!' But ever after I shall keep them by me! Theyshall hang in my house where forever men shall see them! In my son'shouse after me, and in his son's!" Alonso de Villejo visited him. "The tempest is over, senor. I take itfor good augury in your affair!" Juan Lepe upon the deck found beside him a man whom he knew. "What d'yethink? At the worst, in the middle night, there came to Don Alonso andthe master the old seamen and would have him freed so that he might saveus! They said that they had seen his double upon the poop, looking atthe sea and waving his arm. Then it vanished! They wanted the whole man, they wanted the Admiral! The master roared at them and sent them back, but if it had come to the worst--I don't know!" Cadiz--the _Santa Marta_ came to Cadiz. Before us had arrivedBobadilla's ships, one, two and three. What he found to say through hismessengers of the Admiral and Viceroy was in the hands and eyes andears of all. He said at the height of his voice, across the ocean fromHispaniola, violent and villainous things. Cadiz--Spain. We crowded to look. . Down plunged anchor, down rattledsails, around us came the boats. The Admiral and the Adelantado restedin chains. The corregidor of Cadiz took them both thus ashore and to ahouse where they were kept, until the Sovereigns should say, "Bring thembefore us!" Juan Lepe the physician was let to go in the boat with him. JuanLepe--Jayme de Marchena. It was eight years since I had quitted Spain. Iwas older by that, grizzled, bearded and so bronzed by the Indies thatI needed no Moorish stain. I trusted God that Don Pedro and the HolyOffice had no longer claws for me. Cadiz, and all the people out, pointing and staring. I remembered whatI had been told of the return from his first voyage, and the secondvoyage. Then had been bells and trumpets, flowers, banners, grandeesdrawing him among them, shouts and shouts of welcome! He walked in gyves, he and the Adelantado, to the house of hisdetention. Once only a single voice was raised in a shout, "ElAlmirante!" We came to the house, not a prison, though a prison for him. In a good enough room the corregidor sought to have the chains removed. The Admiral would not, keeping back with voice and eye the men whowished to part them from him. When the Sovereigns knew, and when theSovereigns sent--then, but not before! Seven days in this house. Then word from the Sovereigns, and it was hereindignant, and here comforting. The best was the Queen's word; I do notknow if it was so wholly King Ferdinand's. There were letters to thealcalde and corregidor. Release the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea! DonFrancisco de Bobadilla had grossly misunderstood! Soothe the Admiral'shurt. Show him trust and gratitude in Cadiz that was become throughhim a greater city! Fulfill his needs and further him upon the wayto Granada. Put in his purse two thousand ducats. But the letter thatcounted most to Christopherus Columbus was one to himself from theQueen. Juan Lepe found him with it in his hand. From the wrist yet hung thechain. Tears were running down his cheeks. "You see--you see!" he said. "I thank thee, Christ, who taketh care of us all!" They came and took away his chains. But he claimed them from thecorregidor and kept them to his death. Came hidalgos of Cadiz andentreated him away from this house to a better one. Outside the streetwas thronged. "The Admiral! The Admiral! Who gave to Spain the Indies!" Don Bartholomew was by him, freed like him. And there too moved aslender young man who had come from Granada with the Queen's letter, DonFernando, his eldest son. A light seemed around them. Juan Lepe thought, "Surely they who serve large purposes are cared for. Even though theyshould die in prison, yet are they cared for!" CHAPTER XXXVII JUAN LEPE lay upon the sand beyond Palos. The Admiral was with the courtin Granada, but his physician, craving holiday, had borne a letter toJuan Perez, the Prior of _Santa Maria_ de la Rabida. I thought the Admiral would go again seafaring, and that I would go withhim. Up at La Rabida, Fray Juan Perez was kind. I had a cell, Icould come and go; he did not tell Palos that here was the Admiral'sphysician, who knew the Indies from the first taking and could relatewonders. I lived obscure, but in Prior's room, by a light fire, for itwas November, he himself endlessly questioned and listened. Ocean before me, ocean, ocean! Lying here, those years ago, I had seenocean only. Now, far, far, I saw land, saw San Salvador, Cuba that mightbe the main, Hayti, Jamaica, San Juan, Guadaloupe, Trinidad, Pariathat again seemed main. Vast islands and a world of small islands, vastmainlands. Then no sail was seen on far Ocean-Sea; now out there mightbe ships going from Cadiz, coming, returning from San Domingo. Eightyears, and so the world was changed! I thought, "In fifty years--in a hundred years--in two hundred? What iscoming up the long road?" Ocean murmured, the tide was coming in. Juan Lepe waited till the sandshad narrowed, till the gray wave foamed under his hand. Then he rose andwalked slowly to La Rabida. After compline, talk; Fray Juan Perez, the good man, comfortable inhis great chair before the fire. He had hungered always, I thought, foradventure and marvel. Here it happened--? And here it happened--? To-night we fell to talk of the Pinzons--Martin who was dead, andVicente who now was on Ocean-Sea, on a voyage of his own--and of otherswho had sailed, and what they found and where they were. We were at easeabout the Admiral. We had had letters. He was in Granada, dressed again in crimson and gold, towering againwith his silver head, honored and praised. When first he came into theQueen's presence she had trembled a little and turned pale, and therewas water in her eyes. "Master Christopherus, forgive us! Whereupon, "said the letter, "I wept with her. " Apparently all honors were back; he moved Admiral and Viceroy. Hisbrothers, his sons, all his house walked in a spring sun. He had beenshown the letters from Bobadilla, and he who was not lengthy in speechhad spoken an hour upon them. His word rang gold; Christ gave it, hesaid, that his truth was believed. Don Francisco de Bobadilla would quitHispaniola--though not in chains. Fray Juan Perez stirred the fire. Upon the table stood a flask of wineand a dish of figs. We were comfortable in La Rabida. Days passed, weeks passed, time passed. Word from the Admiral, word ofthe Admiral, came not infrequently to white La Rabida. He himself, inhis own person, stood in bright favor, the Queen treasuring him, lovingto talk with him, the Court following her, the King at worst only acool friend. But his affairs of office, Fray Juan Perez and I gathered, sitting solicitous at La Rabida, were not in so fair a posture. He andhis household did not lack. Monies were paid him, though not in full histithe of all gains from his finding. What never shook was his titleof The Admiral. But they seemed, the Sovereigns, or at least KingFerdinand, to look through "Viceroy" as though it were a shade. And inHispaniola, though charged, reproved, threatened, still stayed Bobadillain the guise of Governor! "They cannot leave him there, " I said. "If the Colombos are not men forthe place, what then is Bobadilla?" Fray Juan Perez stirred the fire. "King Ferdinand, I say it only to youand in a whisper, has not a little of the King of the Foxes! Not, tillhe has made up his mind, doth he wish there a perfect man. When he hasmade it up, he will cast about--" "I do not think he has any better than the Adelantado!" "'Those brothers are one. Leave him out!' saith the King. I will readyou his mind! 'Master Christopherus Columbus hath had too much from thebeginning. Nor is he necessary as he was. When the breach is made, anymay take the fortress! I will leave him and give him what I must but nomore!' He will send at last another than Bobadilla, but not again, if hecan help it, the old Viceroy! Of course there is the Queen, but she hasmany sorrows these days, and fails, they say, in health. " "It may be, " said Juan Lepe. "I myself were content for him to rest TheAdmiral only. But his mind is yet a hawk towering over land and sea andclaiming both for prize. He mingles the earthly and the heavenly. " "It is true, " said Fray Juan Perez, "that age comes upon him. And true, too, that King Ferdinand may say, 'Whatever it was at first, this worldin the West becomes far too vast a matter for one man and the old, first, simple ways!'" "You have it there, " I answered, and we covered the embers and went tobed in La Rabida. Winter passed. It was seen that the Admiral could not sail this week northe next. Juan Lepe, bearded, brown as a Moor, older than in the year Granadafell, crossed with quietness much of Castile and came on a springevening to the castle of Don Enrique de Cerda. Again "_Juan Lepe fromthe hermitage in the oak wood_. " Seven days. I would not stay longer, but in that time the ancient treeswaved green again. Don Enrique had been recently to Granada. "King Ferdinand will changeall matters in the West! Your islands shall have Governors, as manyas necessary. They shall refer themselves to a High Governor at SanDomingo, who in his turn shall closely listen to a Council here. " "Will the High Governor be Don Cristoval Colon?" "No. I hear that he himself agrees to a suspension of his viceroyaltyfor two years, seeing well that in Hispaniola is naught but faction, everything torn into 'Friends of the Genoese' and 'Not friends!'. Perhaps he sees that he cannot help himself and that he less parts withdignity by acceding. I do not know. There is talk of Don Nicholas deOvanda, Commander of Lares. Your man will not, I think, be sent beforea steady wind for Viceroy again--never again. If he presses toopersistently, there can always be found one or more who will stand andcry, 'He did intend, O King--he doth intend--to make himself King ofthe Indies!' And King Ferdinand will say he does not believe, but it ismanifest that that thought must first die from men's minds. The Queenfails fast. She has not the voice and the hand in all matters that oncewas so. " "He is one who dies for loyalties, " I said. "He reverences all simplythe crowns of Castile and Leon. For his own sake I am not truly soanxious to have him Viceroy again! They will give him ships and let himdiscover until he dies?" "Ah, I don't think there is any doubt about that!" he answered. We talked somewhat of that great modern world, evident now over thehorizon, bearing upon us like a tall, full-rigged ship. All thingswere changing, changing fast. We talked of commerce and inventions, ofletters and of arts, of religion and the soul of man. Out of the soilwere pushing everywhere plants that the old called heretical. Seven days. We were, as we shall be forever, friends. But Juan Lepe would go back to La Rabida. He was, for this turn of life, man of the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea. So we said farewell, Enrique deCerda and Jayme de Marchena. Three leagues Seville side of Cordova I came at eve to a good inn knownto me of old. Riding into its court I found two travelers entering justbefore me, one a well-formed hidalgo still at prime, and the other ayoung man evidently his son. The elder who had just dismounted turnedand I recognized Don Francisco de Las Casas. At the same instant he sawme. "Ha, Friend! Ha, Doctor!" We took our supper together in a wide, low room, looking out upon theroad. Don Francisco and Juan Lepe talked and the young man listened. Juan Lepe talked but his eyes truly were for this young man. It was notthat he was of a striking aspect and better than handsome, though he wasall that--but I do not know--it was the future in his countenance! Hisfather addressed him as Bartolome. Once he said, "When my son was atthe University at Salamanca, " and again, "My son will go out with DonNicholas de Ovando. " Juan Lepe, sitting in a brown study, roused atthat. "If you go, senor, you will find good memories around the name ofLas Casas. " The young man said, "I will strive in no way to darken them, senor. " He might be a year or two the younger side of thirty. The father, it wasevident, had great pride in him, and presently having sent him onsome errand--sending him, I thought, in order to be able to speak ofhim--told me that he was very learned, a licentiate, having masteredlaw, theology and philosophy. He himself would not return to Hispaniola, but Bartolome wished to go. He sighed, "I do not know. Something makesme consent, " and went on to enlist Doctor Juan Lepe's care if in theisland ever arose any chance to aid-- The son returned. There was something--Juan Lepeknew it--something in the future. Later, Don Francisco having gone to bed, the young man and I talked. Iliked him extraordinarily. I was not far from twice his age, as littleman counts age. But he had soul and mind, and while these count age itis not in the short, earthly way. He asked me about the Indians, and again and again we came back to that, pacing up and down in themoonlight before the Spanish inn. The next morning parting. They were going to Cordova, I to the sea. The doves flew over the cloister of La Rabida. The bells rang; in thesmall white church sang the brothers, then paced to their cells or awayto their work among the vines. Prior had a garden, small, with a treein each corner, with a stone bench in the sun and a stone bench in theshade, and the doves walked here all day long. And here I found theAdelantado with Fray Juan Perez. The Admiral was well? Aye, well, and next month would come to Seville. A new Voyage. We sat under the grape arbor and he told me much, the Prior listeningfor the second time. The doves cooed and whirred and walked in the sunand shadow. According to Don Bartholomew, half in his pack was dark andhalf was light. Ovando? We heard again of all that. He was going out, Don Nicholas deOvando, with a great fleet. The Adelantado possessed a deal of plain, strong sense. "I do not thinkthat Cristoforo will ever rule again in Hispaniola! King Ferdinand hashis own measure and goes about to apply it. The Queen flinches now fromdecisions. --Well, what of it? After all, we were bred to the sea, I havea notion that his son Diego--an able youth--may yet be Viceroy. He hasestablished his family, if so be he does not bring down the structure byobstinating overmuch! He sees that, the Admiral, and nods his head andsteps aside. As for native pride and its hurt he salves that with greatenterprises. It is his way. Drouth? Frost? Out of both he rises, greenand hopeful as grass in May!" "What of the Voyage?" asked Juan Lepe. "That's the enterprise that will go through. Now that Portugal and Vascoda Gama are actually in at the door, it behooves us--more and more itbehooves us, " said Bartolomeo Colombo, "to find India of All the Wealth!Spain no less than Portugal wants the gold and diamonds, the drugs andspices, the fine, thin, painted cloths, the carved ivory and silver andamber. 'Land, land, so much land!' says King Ferdinand. 'But _wealth_?It is all out-go! Even your Crusade were a beggarly Crusade!'" "Ha! That hurt him!" quoth Fray Juan Perez. "Says the King. 'Pedro Alonso Nino has made for us the most profitablevoyage of any who have sailed from Cadiz. ' 'From Cadiz, but not fromPalos, ' answers the Admiral. " "Ha! Easy 'tis when he has shown the way!" said Fray Juan Perez. Don Bartholomew drew with the Prior's stick in the sand at our feet. "Heconceives it thus. Here to the north is Cuba, stretching westward howfar no man knoweth. Here to the south is Paria that he found--no matterwhat Ojeda and Nino and Cabral have done since!--stretching westward howfar no man knoweth, and between is a great sea holding Jamaica and we donot know what other islands. Cuba and Paria curving south and north andbetween them where they shall come closest surely a strait into the seaof Rich India!" He drew Cuba and Paria approaching each the other untilthere was space between like the space from the horn of Spain to thehorn of Africa. "Rich India--now, now, now--gold on the wharves, canoesof pearls, not cotton and cassava, is what we want in Spain! So the Kingsays, 'Very good, you shall have the ships, ' and the Queen, 'Christhave you in his keeping, Master Christopherus!' So we go. All his futurehangs, he knows, on finding Rich India. " "How soon do we go?" "As soon as he can get the ships and the men and the supplies. He wantsonly three or four and not great ones. Great ships for warships andstoreships, but little ships for discovery!" "Aye, I hear him!" said Fray Juan Perez. "September--October. " But it was not until March that we sailed on his last voyage. CHAPTER XXXVIII THE ships were the _Consolacion_, the _Margarita_, the _Juana_ and the_San Sebastian_, all caravels and small ones, the _Consolacion_ thelargest and the flagship. The _Margarita_, that was the Adelantado'sship, sailed badly. There was something as wrong with her as had beenwith the _Pinta_ when we started from Palos in '92. The men all told, crews and officers and adventurers, were less than twohundred. Pedro de Terreros, Bartholomew Fiesco, Diego Tristan, Francisco dePorras were the captains of the caravels Juan Sanchez and Pedro Ledesmathe chief pilots. Bartholomew Fiesco of the _Consolacion_ was a Genoeseand wholly devoted to the greater Genoese. We had for notary DiegoMendez. There were good men upon this voyage, and very bold men. The youth Fernando Colon sailed with his father. He was now fourteen, Don Fernando, slim, intelligent, obedient and loving always to theAdmiral. Days of bright weather, days and days of that marvelous favorable windthat blows over Ocean-Sea. The twenty-fifth of May the Canaries sankbehind us. On and on, all the sails steady. We were not first for Hispaniola. All must be strange, this voyage!Jamaica, not San Domingo, was our star. Rest there a moment, takefood and water, then forth and away. West again, west by south. He wasstraitly forbidden to drop anchor in any water of Hispaniola. "For why?"said they. "Because the very sight of his ships will tear asunder againthat which Don Nicholas de Ovando is healing!" The _Margarita_, that was next to the _Consolacion_ in greatness, sailedso infirmly that mercy 'twas the seas were smooth. It was true accident. She had been known at Palos, Cadiz and San Lucar for good ship. Butat Ercilla where we must stop on the Sovereigns' business, a storm hadbeaten her upon the shore where she got a great wound in her side. Thatwas staunched, but all her frame was wrenched and she never did wellthereafter. In mid-June we came to an island of the Caribs which theycalled Mantineo. Here we rested the better part of a week, keeping goodguard against the Caribs, then sailed, and now north by west, along avast curve, within a world of islands. They are great, they are small, they are of the extremest beauty! San Martin, Dominica, Guadaloupe, San Juan--the Boriquen whence had come, long ago, that Catalina whomGuacanagari aided--and untouched at, or under the horizon, many anotherthat the Admiral had named; _Santa Maria_ la Antigua, Santa Cruz, SantaUrsula, Montserrat, Eleven Thousand Virgins, Marigalante and all beside. What a world! Plato his Atlantis. How truly old we are God only knows! The _Margarita_ sailed most badly. At San Juan that is the neighborgreat island to Hispaniola, council, two councils, one following theother. Then said the Admiral, "We are to find the Strait that shall atlast carry us to clothed Asia of all the echoes, and to find we have butfour small ships and one of them evidently doomed. And in that one sailsmy brother. What is the Sovereigns' command? 'Touch not on your outwardway at Hispaniola!' What is in their mind here? 'Hale and faring well, you have no need. '--But if we are not hale and faring well by a fourthof our enterprise? They never meant it to a drowning man, or one whosewater cask was empty! Being Christian, no! We will put into San Domingoand ask of Don Nicholas de Ovando a ship in place of the _Margarita_. " Whereat all cheered. We were gathered under palms, upon a fair point ofland in San Juan le Bautista. Next day we weighed anchor, and in pictureSan Domingo rose before us. He felt no doubt of decent welcome, of getting his ship. Fifteen sailhad gone out with Ovando. Turn the cases around, and he would havegiven Ovando welcome, he would give him a good ship. How much more thenChristopherus Columbus! The enterprise was common in that all stood toprofit. It was royal errand, world service! So he thought and sailed insome tranquillity of mind for San Domingo. But the Adelantado said in my ear. "There will be a vast to-do! MaybeI'll sail the _Margarita_ to the end. " He was the prophet! It was late June. Hispaniola rose, faint, faint, upon the horizon. All crowded to look. There, there before us dwelled countrymen, fellowmariners, fellow adventurers forth from the Old into the New! It washaven; it was Spain in the West; it was Our Colony. The Admiral gazed, and I saw the salt tears blind his eyes. His son wasbeside him. He put his hand upon the youth's shoulder. "Fernando, thereit is--I found and named it Hispaniola!" The weather hung perilously still, the sea glass. It was so clear above, below, around, that we seemed to see by added light, and yet there wasno more sunlight. All the air had thinned, it seemed, away. Every sailfell slack. Colors were slightly altered. The Admiral said, "There iscoming a great storm. " The boy Fernando laughed. "Why, father!" "Stillness before the leap, " said the Admiral. "Quiet at home becausethe legions have gone to muster. " It was hard to think it, but too often had it been proved that he wasin the secret of water and air. Now Bartholomew Fiesco the Genoese said. "Aye, aye! They say on the ships at Genoa that when it came to weather, even when you were a youngster, you were fair necromancer!" The sky rested blue, but the sea became green oil. That night there wereall around us fields of phosphorescence. About midnight these vanished;it was very black for all the stars, and we seemed to hear a sighing asfrom a giant leagues away. This passed, and the morning broke, silentand tranquil, azure sky and azure sea, and not so sharply clear asyesterday. The great calm wind again pushed us. Hispaniola! Hispaniola! Her mountains and her palms before us. We coasted to the river Hayna and the Spanish city of San Domingo. Threehours from sunset down in harbor plunged our anchors, down rattled oursails. The _Consolacion's_ long boat danced by her side. The Admiral wouldsend to land but one boat, and in it for envoy Pedro de Terreros, awell-speaking man and known to Don Nicholas de Ovando. Terreros wasenvoy, but with him the Admiral sent Juan Lepe, who through the years inHispaniola had tried to heal the sick, no matter what their faction. The Admiral stayed upon the _Consolacion_, the Adelantado upon the_Margarita_. The harbor was filled with ships. We counted eighteen. We guessed thatthey were preparing for sailing, the little boats so came and wentbetween. And our entry had caused excitement. Ship and small boat hailedus, but to them we did not answer. Then came toward us from the shore along boat with the flag of Spain and in it an official. Our wharf! Juan Lepe had left it something more than a year and a halfago. San Domingo was grown, many Spaniards having sailed for the westin that time. I saw strangers and strangers, though of Spanish blood. Walking with the officer and his people to the Governor's house gavetime for observation and swift thought. Throng was forming. One hadearly cried from out it, "That's the doctor, Juan Lepe! 'Tis the Admiralout there!" That it was the Admiral seemed to spread. San Domingo buzzedlike the air about a hive the first spring day. Farther on, out pushed aknown voice. "Welcome, welcome, Doctor!" I looked, and that was Sancho. Luis Torres was in Spain. I had seen him in Cadiz. The crowd wasthickening--men came running--there was cry and query. Suddenly rose acheer. "The Admiral and the Adelantado in their little ships!" At oncecame a counter-shout. "The Genoese! The Traitors!" I saw--I saw--I saw that there was some wisdom in King Ferdinand! The Governor's house that used to be the Viceroy's house. State--state!They had cried out upon the Genoese's keeping it--but Don Nicholasde Ovando kept more. While we waited in the antechamber I saw, out ofwindow and the tail of my eye, files of soldiery go by. Ovando would nothave riot and disturbance if twenty Admirals hung in the offing! Hekept us waiting. He would be cool and distant and impregnable behindthe royal word. Juan Lepe saw plainly that that lavish and magnanimousperson aboard the _Consolacion_ would not meet here his twin. TheAdelantado must still, I thought, sail the _Margarita_. And yet, lookingat all things, that exchange of ships should have been made. A Spaniard, wheresoever found, should have cried "Aye!" to it. The Governor's officer who still kept by us was not averse to talk. Allthose preparing ships in the harbor? Why, they were the returning fleetthat brought Don Nicholas in. Sailing to-morrow--hence the hubbub onland and water. They had a lading now! He gazed a moment at us, and aswe seemed sober folk, saw no reason why we should not have the publicnews. Forth it came like water out of bottle. Bobadilla was returning. "A prisoner?" "Why, hardly that! Roldan, too. " "A prisoner?" "Why, not precisely so. " Many of the old regime--Bobadilla's regime--werereturning and Roldan men likewise. Invited to go, in fact, though withno other harsh treatment. One of the ships would be packed with Indianrebels, Gwarionex among them. Chained, all these. The notable thingabout the fleet, after all that, was the gold that was going! A treasurefleet! Bobadilla _had_ gathered gold for the crown. He was taking, theysaid, a sultan's ransom. He had one piece that weighed, they said, fivethousand castellanos. Roldan too had gold. And the Governor was sendingno man knew how much. More than that-- He looked at us, then, being akindly soul, quoth, "Why shouldn't the Admiral know? Alonso de Carvajalhas put on board the _Santa Clara_ for the Admiral's agent in Cadiz fivethousand pieces--fully due, as the Governor had allowed. " Door was opened. "His Excellency the Governor will see you now. " Why tarry over a short story? Don Nicholas de Ovando pleaded smoothlythe Sovereign's most strict command which _in any_ to disobey were plainmalfeasance! As he spoke he looked dreamily toward blue harbor and the_Consolacion_. And as to a ship! Every ship, except two or three, oldand crippled and in the hands of the menders, no whit better it wascertain than the _Margarita_, was laded and on the point of sailing. Literally he had none, absolutely not one! He understood that Jamaicawas expressly named to the Admiral for resting and overhauling. Careenthe _Margarita_ there and rectify the wrong--which he trusted was notgreat. If ships had been idle and plentiful--but he could not splinterany from the fleet that was sailing to-morrow. He was sorry--and trustedthat the Admiral was in health? Terreros said, "His ship is worse off than you think, Excellency. Hehas great things to do, confided into his hands by the Sovereigns whotreasure him who found all. Here is emergency. May we carry to himinvitation to enter San Domingo for an hour and himself present hiscase?" But no--but no--but no! Thrice that! The Governor rose. Audience was over. For the rest he was courteous--asked of the voyage--and of the Admiral'snotion of the Strait. "A great man!" he said. "A Thinker, a Seer. " Hesent him messages of courtesy three-piled. And so we parted. This was the Governor of whom one said long afterwards, "He was a good governor for white men, but not for Indians. " As life and destiny would have it, in the place without the Governor'shouse I met him who was to say it. Terreros and I with the same escortwere for the water side, the _Consolacion's_ long boat. The crowd keptwith us, but His Excellency's soldiers held it orderly. Yet there wereshouts and messages for the Admiral, and for this one and that oneaboard our ships. Then came a young man, said a word to the officer withus, and put out his hand to mine. It was that Bartolome de Las Casaswith whom I had walked the white road, under moon, before the innbetween Seville and Cordova. CHAPTER XXXIX THE Admiral took it with some Italian words under breath. Then hewheeled and left the cabin. A minute later I heard the master from the_Consolacion_ hail the _Margarita_ that lay close by. "_Margarita_, ahoy! Orders! Clap on sail and follow!" The trumpet cried to the Juanaand the _San Sebastian_, "Make ready and follow!" Our mariners ran to make sail. But the long boat waited for some finalword that they said was going ashore. Terreros would take it. We were soclose that we saw the yet watching crowd, wharf and water side, and thesun glinting upon Ovando's order-keeping soldiery. The Admiral called meto him. I read the letter to the Governor, Terreros would deliver toour old officer, probably waiting on the wharf to see us quite away. Theletter--there was naught in it but the sincerest, gravest warning thata hurricane was at hand. A great one; he knew the signs. It might strikethis shore late to-morrow or the next day or the next. Wherefore hebegged his Excellency the Governor to tarry the fleet's sailing. Let itwait at least three days and see if his words came not true! Elsethere would be scattering of ships and destruction--and he rested hisExcellency's servant. _El Almirante_. Terreros went, delivered that letter, and returned to the _Juana_. Andour sails were made and our anchors lifted, and it was sunset and clearand smooth, and every palm frond of San Domingo showed. Eighteen shipsin harbor, and fifteen, they said, going to Spain, and around and uponthem all bustle of preparation. One saw in fancy Bobadilla and Roldanand Gwarionex and the much gold, including that piece of virgin oreweighing five thousand castellanos. Fifteen ships preparing for Spain, and San Domingo, of which the Adelantado had laid first stone, and astrange, green, sunset sky. And the _Consolacion_, the _Margarita_, theJuana and the _San Sebastian_ away to the west, to the sound of music, for the Admiral cried to our musicians, "Play, play in God's name!" Night passed. Morning broke. So light was the wind that the shore wentby slowly. There gathered an impatience. "If we must to Jamaica, whatuse in following every curve of Hispaniola that is forbid us?" At noonthe wind almost wholly failed, then after three hours of this rose witha pouncing suddenness to a good breeze. We rounded a point thronged withpalms. Before us a similar point, and between the two that bent gentlyeach to the other, slept a deep and narrow bight. "Enter here, " said theAdmiral. We anchored. There was again a strange sunset, green and gold in thelower west, but above an arc of clouds dressed in saffron and red. Andnow we could hear, though from very far off, a deep and low murmur, andwhether it was the forest or the sea or both we did not know. But nowall the old mariners said there would be storm, and we were glad of thelittle bay between the protecting horns. The Admiral named it Bay ofComfort. The _Consolacion_ _Margarita_, _Juana_, _San Sebastian_, layunder bare masts, deep within the bight. The next day, an hour before noon, arrived that king hurricane. They are known now, these storms of Europe's west and Asia's east. Takeall our Mediterranean storms and heap them into one! Through the day our anchors held in our Bay of Comfort, and we blessedour Admiral. But at eve the _Margarita_, the _Juana_ and the _SanSebastian_ lost bottom, feared breaking against the rocky shore andstood out for sea room. The _Consolacion_ stayed fast, and at dawn waswoe to see nothing at all of the three. In the howling tempest and thequarter light we knew not if they were sunk or saved. With the second evening the hurricane sank; at dawn the seas, thoughrunning high, no longer pushed against us like white-maned horses ofDeath. We waited till noon, then the sea being less mountainous, quittedthe Bay of Comfort and went to look for the three ships. The _Juana_ and the _San Sebastian_ we presently sighted and rejoicedthereat. But the _Margarita_! We saw her nowhere, and the Admiral's facegrew gray. His son Fernando pressed close to him. "My uncle is abold man, and they say the second seaman in the world! Let's hope andhope--and hope!" "Why, aye!" said the Admiral. "I'm a good scholar in hope. I told themin San Domingo the ship was not seaworthy. What cared they for that?They were willing that all of my name should drown! God judge betweenus!" The _Juana_ came close and shouted that at eve they had seen theAdelantado in great trouble, close to shore. Then came down the nightand once or twice they thought they made out a light but they were notsure. In this West the weather after a hurricane is weather of heaven. Wecoasted in a high sea, but with safety under a sky one sapphire, andwith a right wind, --and suddenly, rounding a palmy headland, we saw the_Margarita_ riding safe in a little bay like the Bay of Comfort. TheAdmiral fell upon his knees. The _Margarita_ was safe indeed but was so crazed a ship! The _SanSebastian_, too, was in bad case. Hispaniola truly, but some leaguesfrom San Domingo, and a small, desert, lonely bay! We rested herebecause rest we must, and mended our ships. Days--three days--a week. The Admiral and the Adelantado kept our people close to the ships. There was no Indian village, but a party sent to gather fruit found twoIndians biding, watching from a thicket. These, brought to the Admiral, proved to be from a village between us and San Domingo. They had been inthat town after the hurricane. It had uprooted the great tree before theGovernor's house and thrown down a part of the church. "Had the fleet sailed?" Yes, it seemed. The day before the storm. But these men knew nothing ofits fortunes. He kept the Indians with us until we sailed, so as not tospread news of where we were, then gave them presents and let them go. But on the day we set to sail we did not sail, for along the coastand into our bay came a small caravel, going with men to our fort inXaragua. The captain--Ruy Lopez it was--met us as a wonder, San Domingohaving held that the hurricane must have sunk us, the sea swallowedus up. He anchored, took his boat and came to the Admiral upon the_Consolacion_. "Senor, I am glad to see you living!" "Yes, I live, senor. Are you well in San Domingo?" "Well in body, but sick at heart because of the fleet. " "Because of the fleet?" "The fleet, senor, was a day away when the hurricane burst. Half theships were split, lost, sunken! The others, broken, returned to us. Oneonly went on to Spain. The gold ships are lost. Only, they say, the goldthat pertains to you, goes on safely on that one to Cadiz. Gwarionex theIndian is drowned, and Bobadilla and Roldan are drowned. " CHAPTER XL THE Indians called it Guanaja, but the Admiral, the Isle of Pines. Itwas far, far, from Hispaniola, far, far, from Jamaica, over a wide andstormy sea, reached after many days of horrible weather. Guanaja, small, lofty, covered with rich trees among which stood in numbers the pines weloved because they talked of home. To the south, far off, across leaguesof water, we made out land. Mainland it seemed to us, stretching acrossthe south, losing itself in the eastern haze. The weather suddenlybecame blissful. We had sweet rest in Guanaja. A few Indians lived upon this small island, like, yet in some waysunlike all those we knew. But they were rude and simple and they talkedalways of gods _to the west_. We had rested a week when there came atrue wonder to us _from the west_. That was a canoe, of the mightiest length we had yet seen, long asa tall tree, eight feet wide, no less, with twenty-five rowingIndians--tall, light bronze men--with cotton cloth about their loins. Middle of this giant canoe was built a hut or arbor, thatched with palm. Under this sat a splendid barbarian, tall and strong, with a crown offeathers and a short skirt and mantle of cotton. Beside him sat twowomen wrapped in cotton mantles, and at their feet two boys and a youngmaid. All these people wore golden ornaments about their necks. It was in a kind of amaze that we watched this dragon among canoes drawnear to and pass the ships and to the shore where we had built a hut forthe Admiral and the Adelantado and the youth Fernando, and to shelterthe rest of us a manner of long booth. It seemed that it was upon aconsiderable voyage, and wanting water, put in here. The Guanaja Indianscried, "Yucatan! Yucatan!" The Admiral stepped down to meet these strangers. His face glowed. Hereat last was difference beyond the difference of the Paria folk! We found that they were armed, --the newcomers. Strangely made swords ofwood and flint, lances, light bucklers and _hatchets of true copper_. They were strong and fearless, and they seemed to say, "Here before usis great wonder, but wonder does not subdue our minds!" Their language had, it is true, the flow and clink of Indian tongues, yet was greatly different. We had work to understand. But they were pastmasters of gesture. The Admiral sent for presents. Again, these did not ravish, thoughthe cacique and his family and the rowers regarded with interest suchstrange matters. But they seemed to say, "You yourselves and yourfantastic high canoes made, it is evident, of many trees, are thewonder!" But we, the Spaniards, searching now through ten years--long as theWar of Troy--for Asia in which that Troy and all wealth beside had beenplaced, thought that at last we had come upon traces. In that canoe weremany articles of copper, well enough wrought; a great copper bell, a mortar and pestle, hatchets and knives. Moreover in Yucatan werepotters! In place of the eternal calabash here were jars and bowls ofbaked clay, well-made, well-shaped, marked with strange painted figures. They had pieces of cotton cloth, well-woven and great as a sail. Surely, with this stuff, before long the notion of a sail would arise in theseminds! We saw cotton mantles and other articles of dress, both white andgayly dyed or figured. Clothing was not to them the brute amaze wehad found it with our eastern Indians. Matters enough, strange to ourexperience, were being carried in that great canoe. We found they had abread, not cassava, but made from maize, and a drink much like Englishale, and also a food called cacao. Gold! All of them wore gold, disks of it, hanging upon their breasts. The cacique had a thin band of gold across his forehead; together with afillet of cotton it held the bright feathers of his head dress. They traded the gold--all except the coronal and a sunlike plate uponthe breast of the cacique--willingly enough. Whence? Whence? It seemed from Yucatan, on some embassy to another coast or island. Yucatan. West--west! And beyond Yucatan richer still; oh, great riches, gold and clothing and--we thought it from their contemptuous signstoward our booths and their fingers drawn in the air--true houses andtemples. Farther on--farther on--farther west! Forever that haunting, deludingcry--the cry that had deluded since Guanahani that we called SanSalvador. Now many of our adventurers and mariners caught fire from thatcacique's wide gestures. The Adelantado no less. "Cristoforo, it lookssatisfaction at last!" And the young Fernando, --"Father, let us sailwest!" The Admiral was trying to come at that Strait. Earnestly, through JuanLepe and through a Jamaican that we had with us, he strove to give andtake light. Yucatan? Was there sea beyond Yucatan? Did sea like a rivercut Yucatan? Might a canoe--might canoes like ours--go by it from thissea to that sea? But nothing did we get save that Yucatan was a great country with seahere and sea there. "A point of the main like Cuba!" said the Admiral. Behind it, to the north of it, it seemed to us, the greater countrywhere were the gold, the rich clothing, the temples. But we made outthat Yucatan from sea to sea was many days' march. And as for thecountry beyond it, that went on, they thought, forever. They called thiscountry Anahuac and they meant the same that years afterward HernandoCortes found. But we did not know this. We did not know that strangepeople and their great treasure. The Admiral looked out to sea. "I have cried, 'West--west--west!'through a-many years! Yucatan! But I make out no sea-passage thence intoVasco da Gama's India! And I am sworn to the Queen and King Ferdinandthis time to find it. So it's south, it's south, brother and son!" So, our casks being full, our fruit gathered, the sky clear and the windfair, we left the west to others and sailed to find the strait inthe south. When we raised our sails that dragon canoe cried out andmarveled. But the cacique with the coronal asked intelligent questions. The Admiral showed him the way of it, mast and spar and sail cloth, andhow we made the wind our rower. He listened, and at the last he gaveChristopherus Columbus for that instruction the gold disk from hisbreast. I do not know--Yucatan might have gone on from that and itselfdeveloped true ship. If it had long enough time! But Europe was at itsdoors. The canoe kept with us for a little, then shouted to see the fair breezefill our sails and carry us from them. It was mid-August. We came to a low-lying land with hills behind. Herewe touched and found Indians, though none such as Yucatan seemed tobreed. It was Sunday and under great trees we had mass, having with usthe Franciscan Pedro of Valencia. From this place we coasted three days, when again we landed. Here the Indians were of a savage aspect, paintedwith black and white and yellow and uttering loud cries. We thought thatthey were eaters of men's flesh. Likewise they had a custom of wearingearrings of great weight, some of copper, some of that mixed gold wecalled guanin. So heavy were these ornaments that they pulled the eardown to mid-throat. The Admiral named this place the Coast of the Ear. On we sailed, and on, never out of sight of land to starboard. Dayby day, along a coast that now as a whole bent eastward. And yet nostrait--no way through into the sea into which poured the Ganges. CHAPTER XLI THE weather plagued us. The rains were cataracts, the lightningblinding, the thunder loud enough to wake the dead. Day after day, until this weather grew to seem a veritable Will, a Demon with a grudgeagainst us. The _Margarita_ sailed no better; she sailed worse. The Admiralconsidered abandoning her, taking the Adelantado upon the _Consolacion_and dividing his crew among the three ships. But the Adelantado's prideand obstinacy and seamanship were against that. "I'll sail her, becauseSan Domingo thinks I can!" Stormy days and nights, and the Admiral watching. "The _Margarita_! Ho, look out! Do you see the _Margarita_?" In the midst of foul weather came foully back the gout that crippledhim. I would have had him stay in his bed. "I cannot! How do you thinkI can?" In the end he had us build him some kind of shelter upon deck, fastening there a bench and laying a pallet upon this. Here, proppedagainst the wood, covered with cloaks, he still watched the sea and howwent our ship and the other ships. Day after day and day after day! Creeping eastward along a bad shore, inthe teeth of the demon. The seas, the winds, the enormous rain wore usout. Men grew large-eyed. If we slept came a shriek and wakened us. Wewould put to land, but the wind turned and thrust us out again, or wefound no harbor. We seemed to be fixed in one place while time rushed byus. Forecastle began to say, "It is enchantment!" Presently poop echoedit. The boy Fernando brought it to his father. "Alonso de Zamorra andBernardo the Apothecary say that demons and witches are against us. " "The Prince of the Power of the Air!" said the Admiral. "It may be, child! Paynimry against Christianity. We had a touch of the same qualityonce off Cuba. But is it, or is it not, Christian men shall win! Andsend me Bartholomew Fiesco. Such talk is injury. It bores men's courageworse than the _teredo_ a ship's bottom!" We thought the foul weather would never cease, and our toil would nevercease--then lo! at the point of despair the sky cleared with a greatclap of light, the coast turned sharply, sheerly south--he named thegreat cape, Cape Gracias a Dios--and we ran freely, West again. Coming in three days to a wide river mouth, in we turned. The shore wasgrown with reeds that would do for giants' staffs. On mud banks we sawthe crocodile, "cayman" they call it. Again the sky hung a low, grayroof; a thin wind whistled, but for all that it was deathly hot. Seeingno men, we sent two boats with Diego Mendez up the stream. They were notgone a half league, when, watching from the _Consolacion_ we marked astrange and horrid thing. There came without wind a swelling of the sea. Our ships tossed as in tempest, and there entered the river a wall ofsea water. Meeting the outward passing current, there ensued a fury withwhirlpools. It caught the boats. Diego Mendez saved his, but the otherwas seized, tossed and engulfed. Eight men drowned. The thing sank as it had come. The River of Disaster, we named it, and left this strip of coast that seemed to us gloomy and portentous. "_Wizardry! It's not to be lucky, this voyage_. " It was now lateSeptember. Next day, we anchored, it being most clear and beautiful. We lay besidea verdurous islet, between it and a green shore. Here were all ourfruits, and we thought we smelled cinnamon and clove. Across, uponthe main, stood a small village. _Cariari_ the Indians there calledthemselves. They had some gold, but not to touch that canoe fromYucatan. Likewise they owned a few cotton mantles, with jars of bakedclay, and we saw a copper hatchet. But they did not themselves makethese things. They had drifted to them, we thought, from a people farmore skilled. The Admiral cried, "When and when and when shall we come to thispeople?" I answered, "I tell you what is in my mind, and I have got it, I think, from your inmost mind, out of which you will not let it come forthbecause you have had a great theory and think you must stand to it. But what if this that you have underneath is a greater one? What if theworld truly is larger than Alfraganus or the ancients thought? What ifall this that we have found since the first island and that means onlybeginnings of what is to be found; what if it is not Asia at all? Whatif it is a land mass, great as Europe or greater, that no one knewanything of? What if over by the sunset there is Ocean-Sea again, trueocean and as many leagues to Asia as to Spain? What if they cannot leadus to Quinsai, Cambaluc or Zaiton, or to the Ganges' mouth, or AureaChersonesus, because they never heard of them, and they have no ships topass again an Ocean-Sea? What if it is all New, and all the maps have tobe redrawn?" He looked at me as I spoke, steadily and earnestly. What Juan Lepe saidwas not the first entry into his mind of something like that. But hewas held by that great mass of him that was bound by the thinking of theVenerable. He was free far and far beyond most, but to certain thingshe clung like a limpet. "The Earthly Paradise!" he said, and he lookedtoward that Paria that we thought ran across our south. "When our firstparents left the Earthly Paradise, they and their sons and daughters andall the peoples to come wandered by foot into Chaldea and Arabia. Soit could not be!" His blue-gray eyes under that great brow and shock ofwhite hair regarded the south. This faery island--the Garden he called it--and the Cariari who came tous from the main. One day they saw one of us take out pen and inkhornand write down their answers to our many questions. Behind us lay theblue sea, before us the deep groves of the islet; between us and therich shade stood gathered a score of these Indians. They looked at theone seated on the sand, industriously making black marks upon a whitesheet. The Indian speaking stopped short and put up an arm in anattitude of defense; another minute and they had all backed from us intothe wood. We saw only excited, huddled eyes. Then one started forth, advancing over the sand, and he had a small gourd filled with somepowder which he threw before him. He scattered it ceremonially betweenus and himself and his fellows, a slow, measured rite with mutteredwords and now and then a sharp, rising note. Cried Juan Sanchez the pilot, "What's he doing?" Juan Lepe answered before he thought, "He thinks the notary yonder isa magician and the pen his wand. Something is being done to them!Counter-magic. " "Then they are enchanters!" cried Alonso de Zamorro. Our great cluster gave back. "Fix an arrow and shoot him down!" That wasDiego de Porras. The Adelantado turned sharply. "Do no such thing! There may be spells, but the worst spell here would be a battle!" We let fly no arrow, butthe belief persisted that here was seen veritably at work the necromancythat all along they had guessed. A party crossed to the main with the Adelantado and pushed a leagueinto as tall and thick and shadowy a forest as ever we met in all ourwanderings. Here we found no village, but came suddenly, right in thewood, upon a very great thatched hut, and in it, upon a stone, layin state a dead cacique. He seemed long dead, but the body had notcorrupted; it was saved by some knowledge such as had the Egyptians. A crown of feathers rested upon the head and gold was about the neck. Around the place stood posts and slabs of a dark wood and these were cutand painted with I do not know what of beast and bird and monstrous idolforms. We stared. The place was shadowy and very silent. At last withan oath said Francisco de Porras, "Take the gold!" But the Adelantadocried, "No!" and going out of the hut that was almost a house we leftthe dead cacique and his crown and mantle and golden breastplate. Twowooden figures at the door grinned upon us. We saw now what seemed alight brown powder strewed around and across the threshold. One of ourmen, stooping, took up a pinch then dropped it hastily. "It is the samethey threw against us!" "Wizardry! We'll find harm from them yet!" That song crept in now atevery turn. We sailed from the Garden south by east along the endless coast that nostrait broke. At first fair weather ran with us. But the _Margarita_was so lame! And all our other ships wrenched and worm-pierced. And theAdmiral was growing old before our eyes. Not his mind or his soul buthis frame. He bettered, left his bed and walked the deck. And then we came to thecoast we called the Golden Coast, and his hope spread great wings again, and if our mariners talked of magic it was for a time glistening white. Gold, gold! A deep bay, thronged at the mouth with islets so greenand fair, they were marvel to us who were sated with islands great andsmall. We entered under overhanging trees, and out at once to us shottwenty canoes. The Indians within wore gold in amount and purity farbeyond anything in ten years. Oh, our ships could scarce contain theirtriumph! The Admiral looked a dreamer who comes to the bliss center inhis dream. Gold was ever to him symbol and mystery. He did not look uponit as a buyer of strife and envy, idleness and soft luxury; but as abuyer of crusades, ships and ships, discoveries and discoveries, andChrist to enter heathendom. Gold! Discs of great size, half-moons, crescent moons, pierced for acotton string. Small golden beasts and birds, poorly carved but golden. They traded freely; we gathered gold. And there was more and more, theysaid, at Veragua, wherever that might be, and south and east it seemedto be. Veragua! We would go there. Again we hoisted sail and in our ships, now all unseaworthy, crept again in a bad wind along the coast ofgold, --Costa Rico. At last we saw many smokes from the land. That wouldbe a large Indian village. We beat toward it, found a river mouth andentered. But Veragua must have heard of us from a swift land traveler. When a boat from each ship would approach the land--it was in theafternoon, the sun westering fast--a sudden burst of a most melancholyand awful din came from the forest growing close to water side. One of our men cried "Wizards!" The Admiral spoke from the stern ofthe long boat. "And what if they be wizards? We may answer, 'We areChristians!'" The furious din continued but now we were nearer. "Besides, " he said, "those are great shells and drums. " Our rowers held off. Out of the forest on to the narrow beach startedseveral hundred shell-blowing, drum-beating barbarians, marvelouslyfeathered and painted and with bows and arrows and wooden swords. An arrow stuck in the side of our boat, others fell short. The Admiralrose, tall, broad-shouldered, though lean as winter where there iswinter, with hair as white as milk. He held in his hand a string ofgreen beads and another of hawk bells which he made to ring, but he didnot depend more upon them than upon what he held within him of powerfuland pacific. He sent his voice, which he could make deep as a drumand reaching as one of those great shells. "Friends--friends! BringingChrist!" An arrow sang past him. His son would have drawn him down, but, "No--no!" and "Friends--friends! Bringing Christ!" And whether they thought that "Christ" was the beads and the bell, orwhether the bowman in him did send over good will and make it to entertheir hearts, or whether it was somewhat of both, they did suddenly growfriendly. Whereupon we landed. Gold! We took much gold from this place. One of our men, touched by thesun, sat and babbled. "Oh, the faithful golden coast! Oh, the gold thatis to come! Great golden ships sailing across blue sea! A hundred--no, athousand--what do I say? A million Indians with baskets long and wide ontheir backs and the baskets filled with gold! The baskets are so greatand the gold so heavy that the Indians are bowed down till they go onall fours. Gold, --a mountain of pure gold and every Spaniard in Spainand a few Italians--golden kings--" When we had all we could get, upsail and on! Sail on and on along the golden coast of Veragua! Come to a river andland, for all that again we heard drums and those great shells stronglyblown. Make peace and trade. And here again was gold, gold, gold. Wewere now assured that the main was far richer than any island. Turbulenthope, --that was the chief lading now of the four ships. Gold! Gold!Golden moon disks and golden rude figures. We found a lump of goldwrought like a maize ear. What was beyond that, by itself under trees, we found an ancient, broken, true wall, stone and lime. The stones were great ones, settruly, with care. The wall was old; the remainder of house, if house ortemple there had been, broken from it. Now the forest overran all. Wedid not know when or by whom it was built, and we found no more like it. But here was true masonry. All of us said that the world of the main wasnot the world of the islands. Ciguarre. These Indians declared it was Ciguarre we should seek. Nowthat we were in Veragua--seek Ciguarre. So we sailed beyond Veragua hunting the strait which we must passthrough to Ganges and Ind of old history. CHAPTER XLII PUERTO BELLO! Beautiful truly, and a harbor where might ride a navy. Butno gold; and now came back very evilly the evil weather. Seven days ablast rocked us. We strained eyes to see if the _Margarita_ yet lived. The _San Sebastian_ likewise was in trouble. No break for seven days. Itwas those enchanters of Cariari--magic asleep for a while but now awake! Storm. And two ships nigh to foundering. When wind sank and blue cameback, we left Puerto Bello and turned again south by east, but now withcrazy, crazy ships, weather-wrenched and worm-eaten, _teredo_ pierced. They looked old, so old, with their whipped and darkened sails. Andwhen we dropped anchor in some bight there was no gold, but all night weheard that harsh blowing of shells and beating of drums. Francisco and Diego de Porras, Alonso de Zamorra, Pedro de Villetoro, Bernardo the Apothecary and others, the most upon the _Consolacion_, others on the _Margarita_ and the _Juana_, now began to brew mutiny. We sailed on, and upon this forlorn coast we met no more gold. Our shipsgrew so worn that now at any threat in the sky we must look and lookquickly for harborage, be it good or indifferent bad. To many of us thecoast now took a wicked look. It was deep in November. No gold. These Indians--how vast anyhow was India?--were hostile, notfriendly. Our ships were dying, manifestly. If they sank under us and wedrowned, the King and Queen--if the Queen still lived--never would cometo know that Christopherus Columbus had found Veragua thrice moregolden even than Paria! Found Veragua, met men of Yucatan; and heard ofCiguarre. At last not only the mutinous but steadfast men cried, "If there is astrait it is too far with these ships!" For a time he was obstinate. _It must be found, --it must be found!_ Butone night there fell all but loss of the Margarita. When next he slepthe had a dream. "The good Queen came to me and she had in her handa picture of five stout ships. Out of her lips came a singing voice. 'Master Christopherus, Master Christopherus, these wait for you, ridingin Cadiz harbor! But now will you slay your son and your brother and allyour men?' Then she said, 'The strait is hidden for a while, ' and went. " That day we turned. "We will go back to Veragua and lade with gold, andthen we'll sail to Jamaica and to Hispaniola where this time we shall bewelcome! Then to Spain where the Queen will give me a stronger fleet. " Our ships hailed the turning. Even the Adelantado, even Diego Mendez andJuan Sanchez and Bartholomew Fiesco who were of the boldest drew longbreath as of men respited from death. Not so many have known and lived to tell of such weather as now we metand in it rolled from wave to wave through a long month. Would we put to land we were beaten back. We had never seen such waves, and at times they glowed with cold fire. The sea with the wind twisted, danced and shouted. We were deaf with thunder and blind with lightning. When the rain descended, it was as though an upper ocean were comingdown. A little surcease, then return of the tempest, like return ofPolyphemus. Men died from drowning, and, I think, from pure fright. Oneday the clouds drove down, the sea whirled up. There was made a hugewater column, a moving column that fast grew larger. Crying out, oursailors flung themselves upon their knees. It passed us with a mightysound, and we were not engulfed. The Admiral said, "God tries us, but he will not destroy us utterly!" The boy Fernando, in a moment's wild terror who was ordinarilycourageous as any, clung to him. "O my son! I would that you were in LaRabida, safe beside Fray Juan Perez! My son and my brother Bartholomew!" Now came to us all scarcity of food and a misery of sickness. Now twothirds would have mutinied had we not been going back--but we were goingback--creeping, crawling back as the tempest would allow us. Christmas! We remembered our first Christmas in this world, by Guaricoin Hispaniola, when the _Santa Maria_ sank. Again we found a harbor, andwe lay there between dead and alive, until early January. We sailed andon Epiphany Day entered a river that we knew to be in golden Veragua. The Admiral called it the Bethlehem. Gold again, gold! Not on the Bethlehem, but on the river of Veragua, notfar away, to which the Admiral sent the Adelantado and two long boatsfilled with our stoutest men. They brought back gold, gold, gold! The cacique of these parts was Quibian, a barbarian whom at the last, not the first, we concluded to be true brother of Caonabo. With threescore of our strongest, the Adelantado pushed again up theriver of Veragua, too rough and shallow for our ships. He visitedQuibian; he traded for gold; he was taken far inland and from a hillobserved a country of the noblest, vale and mountain and Indian smokes. The mountains, the Indians said, were packed with gold. He brought backmuch gold, Indians bearing it for him in deep baskets that they made. Quibian paid us a visit, looked sullenly around, and left us. Not inthe least was he Guacanagari! But neither, quite yet, did he turn intoCaonabo. The Admiral sat pondering, his hands before him between his knees, hisgray-blue eyes looking further than the far mountains. Later, on theshore, he and the Adelantado walked up and down under palm trees. Thecrews watched them, knowing they were planning. What they planned came forth the next day, and it was nothing short of acolony, a settlement upon the banks of the river Bethlehem. Christopherus Columbus spoke, --tall, powerful, gaunt, white-headed, gray-eyed, trusted because he himself so trusted, suasive, filled withthe power of his vision. His frame was growing old, but he himselfstayed young. His voice never grew old, nor the gray-blue light fromhis eyes. Here was gold at last, and Veragua manifestly richer than allHispaniola; aye, richer than Paria! Behind Veragua ran Ciguarre that wasfabulously rich, that was indeed India sloping to Ganges. The Indianswere friendly enough for all their drum-beating and shell-blowing. Quibian's first frowning aspect had been but aspect. A scarlet cloakand a sack full of toys had made all right. There was rest on land, withfruit and maize as we saw. Build a fort--leave a ship--divide our force. A half would rest here, first settlers of a golden country with allfirst settlers' advantage. Half sail with Christopherus Columbus backto Spain--straight to Spain--for supplies and men. He would return, heswore it, with all speed. A ship should be left, and beyond the ship, the Adelantado. --It was for volunteers for the fortress and city ofVeragua! In the end eighty men said "We will stay. " We began to build. How longsince we had built La Navidad! The River Bethlehem, that had been full when we entered, now was halfempty of its waters. The _Consolacion_, the _Juana_, and the _SanSebastian_ that were to depart for Spain could not pass. The Admiralhung, fitted to go, but waiting perforce for rains that should lift theships so they might pass the bar. Again Juan Lepe was to stay--so surely would the staying need aphysician. "It is March, " said the Admiral. "God aiding, I and Fernando shall beback in October at latest. " These Indians seemed to us to have Carib markings. Yet they allprofessed amity and continuously brought in gold. We began to build bythe fort a storehouse for much gold. Suddenly we found--Diego Mendez, bold enough and a great wanderer, doingthe finding--that Quibian's village up the river of Veragua containedmany too, many young men and men in their prime, and that by day andnight these continued to pour in. It had--Diego Mendez thought--much theaspect of a camp whose general steadily received reenforcement. Next day came to the Admiral an Indian who betrayed his people. Quibiannever meant to have in Veragua a swarm of white caciques! When he hadabout him every young man, he was coming, coming, coming through thewoods! The Admiral sent the Adelantado. That strong man chose fourscoreSpaniards, armed them and departed. By boat and through thick forest hereached Quibian's village, descended upon it like a hurricane and seizedQuibian, much as long ago--long, long ago it seemed to us--Alonso deOjeda had seized Caonabo. Juan Sanchez the pilot held Quibian in the long boat while theAdelantado still wrought upon the land. Juan Sanchez was strong andwary, and watchful; so they swore were all the Spaniards in the boat. Yet when night was fallen that Indian, bound as he was, broke with ashout from them all and leaped from boat into black river. They thought he perished, seeing him no more for all their moving aboutand bringing the boat to the land. Juan Sanchez was certain he sank, bound as he was. With other captives and with a great mass of goldenornaments, came back to the ships the Adelantado. The Indian camp wasbroken, dispersed. The rains began to fall. The river swelled; the fort and store place andother houses were builded. The eighty who were to stay and the something under that number who wereto go prepared to say farewell. We went to mass under three palm trees, before our fort on the river Bethlehem. That over, those who were to gowent aboard the three ships, and the sails were made, and they began tosing as they passed down the Bethlehem. The _Margarita_ and we watchedtheir going. They went a league, and then another--we thought they were wholly gone. But out of the river, though the skies were clear, again rushed againstthem an enemy wind. They lay at anchor in river mouth, waiting onpropitiousness. But we, up the river, thought they were gone. Thatnight, before dawn, Quibian attacked us. We had several killed, and the Adelantado was hurt in the breast, andmany others had their wounds. But we thundered with our cannon and weloosed two bloodhounds and we charged. For a time the brown, naked foefought desperately, but at last he broke. Far streamed five hundredfleeing particles into the gloomy, the deep, the matted forest. Up theriver came a long boat, and we found it to hold Diego Tristan and eightmen sent by the Admiral with a forgotten word for the Adelantado. Muchwe rejoiced that the ships were not clean gone! Diego Tristan took our news. The Adelantado--his hurt was slight--wroteagain to the Admiral. Again we said farewell to Diego Tristan. The longboat passed a turn in the Bethlehem; out of our sight. Once we thoughtwe heard a faint and distant shouting, but there was no telling. Butin five hours there staggered into fort Juan de Noya who alone lived ofthat boatful, set upon by Quibian. Diego Tristan dead, and seven men. All that night we heard in the wood those throbbing Indian drums andwild-blowing shells. They were Caribs, now we were sure, and Quibian lived and preached aholy war. Though we had driven them off, we heard them mustering again. If we could not get food--perhaps not water? Sixty of ours came to the Adelantado. In truth, all might have come, for massacre, slow or swift, was certain if we stayed in Veragua. I readthat the Adelantado, who was never accused of cowardice or fickleness, was himself determined. The settlement below the golden mines of goldenVeragua must wait a little. We took our wounded and with the Adelantado, turned Mars in these threedays, came down to the Bethlehem, to a pebbly shore from which the waterhad shrunken. Here at least was our ship with us, and the river thatbore to the sea. Here, for the weather was ferocious and Quibian howlingaround us, we built what shelter we might. Here in much misery we waiteddays for the long and wild storm to cease. We hoped the Admiral was yetat the mouth of the Bethlehem, but could not do more than hope. Then came through every peril that might be Pedro Ledesma, from theships. They waited! Break through--come down! The _Margarita_ could never pass the bar that now the falling water leftexposed. We made rafts, we dismantled her and took what we could; weleft her in Veragua for Quibian to walk her deck and sail her if hemight. Through danger in multitude, with our rafts and two boats, withthe loss of six men, we went down the Bethlehem. Some of ours wept whenthey saw the ships, and the Admiral wept when he and the Adelantado met. Away from Veragua! Is it only the Spaniards who suffer, and for what at the last, notat the first, did Quibian fight? In that strong raid when we thoughtQuibian perished had been taken captive brothers and kinsmen of thatcacique. These were prisoned upon the _Juana_, to be taken to Spain, shown, made Christian, perhaps sold, perhaps--who knows?--returned totheir land, but never to freedom. While the _Juana_ tossed where Bethlehem met the sea, these Indiansbroke in the night time up through hatchway and made for the side tothrow themselves over. But the watch gave a great cry and sprang uponthem, and other Spaniards came instantly. All but two were retaken. These two, wrenching themselves free, sprang away into rough water anddark night, and it is most likely that they drowned, being a mile fromshore. But the others were thrust back and down under hatch which thenwas chained so that they might not again lift it. But in the morningwhen the captain of the _Juana_ went to look, all, all were dead, havinghanged themselves. CHAPTER XLIII WE left one of our ships in the Bethlehem and we lost another upon thisdisastrous coast ere we got clear for Jamaica. We were sea specters. We had saved our men from the _San Sebastian_as from the _Margarita_. Now all were upon the _Consolacion_ and the_Juana_. Fifty fewer were we than when we had sailed from Cadiz, yet thetwo ships crept over-full. And they were like creatures overcome witheld. Beaten, crazed, falling apart. On the Eve of Saint John we came to Jamaica. The ships were riddled by the _teredo_. We could not keep afloat to goto Hispaniola. At Santa Gloria we ran them in quiet water side by sideupon the sand. They partly filled, they settled down, only forecastleand poop above the blue mirror. We built shelters upon them and bridgedthe space between. The ocean wanderers were turned into a fort. Jamaica, we thanked all the saints, was a friendly land. They brought uscassava and fruit, these Indians; they swarmed about us in their canoes. The gods in trouble, yet still the gods! We were forty leagues from Hispaniola, and we had no ship! Again there volunteered Diego Mendez. We ourselves had now but oneChristian boat. But there existed canoes a-plenty. Chose one, with sixIndians to row! Leave Diego Mendez with one other Spaniard of his choiceto cross the sea between us and Hispaniola, get to San Domingo, rouseall Christian men, even Don Nicholas de Ovanda, procure a large ship ortwo smaller ones, return with rescue! We sent off Diego Mendez with strong farewells and blessings. The vastblue sea and air withdrew and covered from sight the canoe. A week--two weeks. Grew out of the azure a single canoe, and approached. "Diego Mendez--Diego Mendez!" It was he alone, with a tale to tell of storm and putting ashore andcapture after battle by Jamaicans no longer friendly, and of escapealone. But he would go again if so be he might have with him BartholomewFiesco. They went, with heavily paid Indians to row the staunchest canoewe could find. This time the Adelantado with twenty kept them companyalong the shore to end of the island, where the canoe shot forth intoclear sea, and the blue curtain came down between the stranded and thegoing for help. The Adelantado returned to us, and we waited. The weekscrept by. Great heat and sickness, and the Indians no longer prompt to bring ussupplies. Sooner or later, each of these dark peoples found a Quibian orCaonabo. The most of us determined that Diego Mendez and Fiesco and their canoewere lost. Hispaniola knew nothing of us--nothing, nothing! Suddenly thetwo Porras brothers led a mad mutiny. "Leave these rotting ships--seizethe canoes we need--all of us row or swim to Hispaniola!" There were fifty who thought thus. The Admiral withstood them withstrong words, with the reasoning of a master seaman, and the counselnow--his white and long hair, and eld upon him--of Jacob or Isaacor Abraham. But they would not, and they would not, and at last theydeparted from us, taking--but the Admiral gave them freely--the dozencanoes that we had purchased, crowding into these, rowing away withcries from that sea fortress, melancholy indeed, in the blinding light. They vanished. The next day fair, the next a mad storm. Two weeks, andnews came of them. They were not nigh to Hispaniola; wrecked, they lostfive men, but got, the rest of them, to land, where they now roved fromvillage to village. Another week, and the Indians who came to us andwhom we kept friendly, related with passionate and eloquent word andgesture evils that that band was working. Pedro Margarite--Roldan--overand over again! After much of up and down those mutineers came back to us. They couldnot do without us; they could not get to Hispaniola in Indian canoes. The Admiral received them fatherly. No sail--no sail. Long months and no sail. Surely Diego Mendez andBartholomew Fiesco were drowned! Hispaniola, if it thought of us at all, might think us now by Ganges. Or as lost at sea. Christopherus Columbus dreamed again, or had a vision again. "I washopeless. I wept alone on a desert shore. My name had faded, and allthat I had done was broken into sand and swept away. I repined, andcried, 'Why is it thus?' Then came a ship not like ours, and One steppedfrom it in light and thunder. 'O man of little faith, I will cover thyeyes of to-day!' He covered them, and I _saw_. --And now, Juan Lepe, Icare not! We will all come Home, whether or no the wave covers us here. " To mariners and adventurers he said at no time any word of despair. Hesaid, "A ship will come! For if--which the saints forfend--BartholomewFiesco and Diego Mendez have not reached San Domingo, yet come at lastwill some craft to Jamaica! From our island or from Spain. How manytimes since '92 has there been touching here? Of need now it will beoftener and oftener!" But still many pined with hope deferred. --And then, out of the blue, arose first Diego de Escobar's small ship, and later the two good shipssent by Don Nicholas de Ovando. The Admiral of the Ocean-Sea lodged in the Governor's house in SanDomingo. Who so courteous as Don Nicholas, saving only Don Cristoval? Juan Lepe found certain ones and his own eyes to tell him of islandfortunes. Here was Sancho, a bearded man, and yet looked out the youthwho had walked from Fishertown to Palos strand. "Oh, aye! San Domingo'sgrowing! It's to be as great as Seville, with cathedral and fortress andpalace. White men build fast, though not so fast as the Lord!" "The Governor?" "Oh, he makes things spin! He's hard on the Indians--but then they'vesurely given us trouble!" He told of new forts and projected towns and an increasing streamof ships, from Spain to Spain again. "We're here to stay--as long asthere's a rock of gold or anything that can be turned into gold! The oldbad times are over--and that old, first simple joy, too, Doctor!--Maybewe'll all ship for Ciguarre. " But no. The colony now was firm, with thousands of Spaniards where oncehad stood fivescore. Luis Torres sat with me and he told me of Indianwar, --of Anacaona hanged and Cotubanama hanged, of eighty caciquesburned or hanged, of _peace_ at last. Now the Indians worked the mines, and scraped the sands of every stream, and likewise planted cottonand maize for the conquerors. They were gathered in _repartimentios, encomiendas_, parceled out, so many to every Spaniard with power. Theold word "gods" had gone out of use. "Master" was now the plain andaccurate term. The Governor was a shrewd, political, strong man, --not without hisgenerosities to white men. But no dreamer! He put down faction, butthere was now less faction to put down. All had been united in masteringthe Indian, and now with peace the getting of wealth was regularized. Hehad absolutely the ear of King Ferdinand, and help from Spain wheneverhe called for it. Yes, he was fairly liked by the generality. And hadI noticed the growth in cowls and processions? Mother Church was movingin. The next day I met again Bartolome de Las Casas. September now--and a ship from Spain, bringing the news that the Queenwas ill. There was another who was ill, and that was the Admiral of theOcean-Sea: "I must go--and we quarrel here, this Governor-in-my-place and I--I mustgo, rest at La Rabida with you, Doctor, and Fray Juan Perez to help me. Then I must go to court and see the Queen. " The Adelantado said, "Both you and the Queen will get well. What, brother, your voyages are just begun! But let us sail now for Spain. Ithink well of that. " And the son Fernando, Yes, yes, let us go home, father, and see Diego! CHAPTER XLIV IT was Seville, and an inn there, and the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea laidin a fair enough room. His gout manacled him, and another sickness creptupon him, but he could think, talk and write, and at times, for serenityand a breath of pleasure, read. He was ever a reader. About him, all day long, came people. They called themselves friends, and many were friends. But some used that holy word for robber-mask. Others were the idlest wonder-seekers, never finding wonder within, always rushing for it without. His heart, for all his much experience, or perhaps because of that, was a simple heart. He took them for whatthey said they were, for friends, and he talked of the Indies and allhis voyages past and to come, for he would yet find Ciguarre and retakethe Sepulchre. He had not much money. All his affairs were tangled. Yet he restedAdmiral of the Ocean-Sea, and in name, at least, Viceroy of the Indies. He was much concerned over his mariners and others who had returned withhim to Spain. All their pay was in arrears. He wrote begging letters forthem, and with his sons forever in his mind, for himself. Don Diego, DonFernando, they were pleasant, able youths. Fray Juan Perez came to Seville. He was worldly comfort, but ghostlycomfort too. The Admiral talked of Ciguarre and Jerusalem, but also nowof the New Jerusalem and the World-to-come. Late in November, at Medina del Campo Santo died the Queen! He told me a dream or a vision that day. There was, he said, a fair, tranquil shore, back of a fair, blue haven, and his wife and his mother, long dead, walked there in talk. Back of the shore rose, he said, a citywith wonderful strong walls and towers and a perpetual sweet ringingof church bells. It seemed to climb to one great palace and church, setabout with orchards, with many doves. The whole mounted like Monsalvat. The city seemed to be ready for some one. They were hanging outtapestries and weaving garlands and he heard musicians. Everywhere shonea light of gladness. He returned to the seashore, and walking with hiswife and mother, asked them about the city. They said that it was theQueen's City. Then, he said, he seemed to hear trumpets, and far on thehorizon made out a sail. --Then city and shore and all were gone, and itwas dark, starry night, and he was in the Azores, alone, with a staff inhis hand that he had drawn from the sea. It was Fray Juan Perez who brought him news of her death. "QueenIsabella!" he said and turned to the wall and lay there praying. One day there came to see him Amerigo Vespucci who sailing with Ojeda, knew Paria. They talked of that Vastness to the south. The Venetianthought it might be a continent wholly unknown alike to the ancients andthe moderns. "Known, " answered the Genoese, "in the far, far past! Butunknown, I grant, for so long that it has become again new. All a NewWorld. " "How should we map it?" said the other. "Faith of God! I should like tosee the maps a hundred years from now!" He had something to say of Sebastian Cabot who was finding northward forKing Henry of England. But laying a fine small hand upon the Admiral'smighty one, he called him "_magister et dominus_, ChristopherusColumbus. " Winter wore away. With the spring he seemed to be better in health. He left his bed. But the physician, Juan Lepe, believed that ports andhavens, new lands, and service of an order above this order were evennow coloring and thrilling within. When all spring was singing high, the Admiral, having had a letter fromthe king, said he would go to court. His sons would have had him travelin a litter, but he waved that away. The Adelantado procured him a mule, and with his sons and brother and a small train beside he started, theKing being at Segovia. He had a hardly scraped together purse of gold, and all his matters seemed dejected. Yet his family riding with himrode as nobles of Spain, and his son, Don Diego, should one day becomeGovernor of Hispaniola. Earthly speaking, for all his feeling "All isvain!" he had made his family. Unlike many families so made, this onewas grateful. On the road to Segovia, stayings, restings and meetings were cordialenough to him, for here flocked the people to see the Discoverer. Ifthey heard his voice they were happy; if some bolder one had a moment'sspeech with him that fortunate went off with the air of, "My children'schildren shall know of this!" There returned in this springtide travelsunniness, halcyon weather, bright winds of praise. The last health ofthe present body was his upon this journey. Health and strength harkedback. All noted it. Jayme de Marchena held it for the leap of the flamebefore sinking, before leaving the frame of this world. But his sons andDon Bartholomew cried, "Why, father, why, brother, you will outlive usyet!" He rode firmly; he looked about with bright, blue-gray eyes; his voicehad the old, powerful thrill. It was happiness to him when the simplecame crowding, or when in some halt he talked with two or three or witha solitary. The New Lands and the Vast Change, and it would affect allour life, this way, that way and the other way. But when we came to Segovia, the King was dead, not alive, toChristopherus Columbus. Not dead to the Indies, no! But dead to theirold discoverer. We had chilly weather, miserable, and all the buds ofpromise went back. Or rather there were promises, cold smiles, but evenhe, the Genoese, saw at last that these buds were _simulacra_, nevermeant to bloom. The Queen was gone. The Court wore the King's color. Then the King wentto Laredo to meet his daughter Juana, who was now Queen of Castile. Withhim went all of importance. Segovia became a dull and somewhat hostilewater where rode at last anchor the ship of the Admiral. CHAPTER XLV DON FERNANDO met me at the door. "He is wandering--he thinks he is inCordova with my mother. " He came from that and said he would get up andgo to mass. Persuaded to lie quiet, he talked of his will, drawn beforehis third voyage, and said that he would have it read to him, and make acodicil. This will. It ran at length through preamble and body. "In the name of the most Holy Trinity who revealed it to me that I could sail westward across Ocean-Sea-- "As it pleased God, in the year one thousand, four hundred and ninety-two, I discovered the Continent of the Indies and many islands. I returned to Cadiz to their Majesties who allowed my going a second voyage, and in this God gave me victory over the island of Hispaniola, which covers six hundred leagues, and I conquered it and made it tributary; and I discovered many islands dwelled in by Caribals or eaters of men's flesh, and also Jamaica which I named Santiago, and three hundred and thirty leagues of Continent from south to west--" He recited his rights, dignities, tithes, emoluments, -- "whereto I have the sacred word of the Sovereigns. " Then came theheirship. All upon Don Diego and the heirs of his body, with lavishprovision for the younger son, "having great qualities and most dear tome, " and for the brothers, but more especially the Adelantado. Followedgifts to friends and companions, and then far-flung benefactions. Son and son's son must give, year following year, a tenth of revenuefrom the Indies to the help of needy men. "In the city of Genoa in Italy is to be maintained a man and his wife ofthe line of our family of which he is to be the root in that city, fromwhence all good may derive unto her, for I was born there and came fromthence. " The taking of the Sepulchre. Into the Bank of Saint George in Genoa, "that noble and potent city" was to be put what moneys could be savedand collected for the purpose, "and one day God will bring the purposeabout. " His heirs must support the Crown of Spain, "seeing that theseSovereigns, next to God, are responsible for my achieving the property, though true it is that I came into this country to invite them to theenterprise, and that a long while passed before they allowed me toexecute it, but this should not surprise us as it was an undertaking ofwhich all the world was ignorant and no one had any faith in it. " And ifschism arose in Christendom, his heirs must to their uttermost supportHis Holiness the Pope, and give all and die, if need be, defendingthe Church of God. And, where it was possible and not contrary to theservice and the claims of the Sovereigns of Spain, "let them give aidand service to that noble city of Genoa from which we all spring. " Such and such moneys, accruing, were to be applied to making fitmarriages for the daughters of the line. And let Don Diego his son build in the island of Hispaniola a churchand call it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, a church and a hospital anda chapel where masses might be said for the good of the soul ofChristopherus Columbus. "Doubtless God will be pleased to give usrevenue enough for this and all purposes. " And let them maintain in theisland of Hispaniola four good teachers of theology to convert to theOne Faith the inhabitants of the Indies, "to which end no expense shouldbe thought too considerable. " Many other things he provided for. He cared for that Dona Beatrix whohad given him Fernando. Where he had met kindness, there he gave as besthe might. Among other small bequests was a silver mark to a poor Jew whohad done him service, who lived at the gate of the Ghetto in Lisbon. Hegave to many, and closed his will and signed it with his signet lettersand below these, EL ALMIRANTE. After this there came a second leap of the flame. Queen Juana was withher husband, King Phillip, in Laredo, --Queen of Castile as had been thegood Queen her mother. The Admiral, utterly revering the Queen who wasgone, wrote to the daughter Queen a stately letter of high comfort andoffer and promise of service. He would have the Adelantado, no less aman, bear this to Laredo. Don Bartholomew spoke aside to Juan Lepe. "IfI do as he wished, I do not know if I will see him again. " "I do not know, " I answered. "But his heart is set on. . . " "Then I will go, " he said. "And many's the time I have thought, 'I shallnever see him again', and still we met. " For several days after this I thought that after all he might recover. Perhaps even sail again on earthly discoveries. Then, in a night, camethe unmistakable stroke upon the door. He sank, and knew now that he was putting off the body. Fray Juan Perezstayed beside him. His sons and his brother Diego waited with reddenedeyes. It was full May, and the bland wind strayed in and out of windowand fluttered his many papers upon the great table. It was towardevening of Ascension Day. His son Fernando threw himself on the bed, weeping. The Admiral's great hand fell upon the youth's head. He lookedto the window and said clearly, "A light--yonder is a light!" and aftera moment, "_In manus tuas Domine coinmendo spiritum meum_. " The sea by Palos and June in Andalusia. Juan Lepe, staying at La Rabida, walked along the sands and saw Life like a mighty, breathing picture. Hestood by the sea and the ripples broke at his feet, and he felt and knewthe Master of Life, there where feeling and knowing pass into Being. He walked a mile beside Ocean-Sea, then sat down beneath ridgedsand with the wind singing over. It sang, _Where now, Jayme deMarchena--where now--where now_? I sat still. Spain rose behind me, Spain and Europe. Before me, out ofsea, lifted the New Lands. There fell a moment of great calm and quiet. Then, fleeting, like a spirit, passed before me the Indian Guarin whohad saved me after La Navidad. I saw his dark eyes, then he went. Stillspace without color or line or form, and outside, dreamily, dreamily, the ocean sounding below La Rabida. Then, in the clear field roseBartolome de Las Casas. A quiet, singing voice ran through Jayme deMarchena, and he knew that he would return to Hispaniola and link hislife with that younger life which apparently had work to do in theIndies.